Class 




Book 



//5.^• 



THE 



RISE AND PROGRESS 



OF THE 



PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS. 



BY WILLIAM PENN. 



As unknown, and yet well known. 2 Cor. vi. 9. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
HENRY PERKINS, 134 CHESTNUT STREET. 

BOSTON: 
PERKINS & MARVIN. 

1838. 






In Exchange 
Duke University 
MAR 2 a ^i»^ 








TO 

THE READER. 



This following account of the people called 
Quakers, &c. was written in the fear and love 
of God : first, as a standing testimony to that 
ever blessed truth, in the inward parts, with 
which God, in my youthful time, visited my 
soul, and for the sense and love of which I was 
made willing, in no ordinary way, to relin- 
quish the honours and interests of the world. 
Secondly, as a testimony for that despised peo- 
ple, that God has in his great mercy gathered 
and united by his own blessed Spirit in the holy 
profession of it ; whose fellowship I value above 
all worldly greatness. Thirdly, in love and 
honour to the memory of that worthy servant 
of God, George Fox, the first instrument thereof, 
and therefore styled by me. The great and 
blessed apostle of our day. As this gave birth 
to what is here presented to thy view, in the 
first edition of it, by way of preface to George 
Fox's excellent journal ; so the consideration 
of the present usefulness of the following 
account of the people called Quakers, (by 
reason of the unjust reflections of some adver- 



TO THB READER. 



saries that once walked under the profession of 
friends) and the exhortations that conclude it, 
prevailed with me to consent that it should be 
republished in a smaller volume; knowing also 
full well, that great books, especially in these 
days, grow burthensome, both to the pockets 
and minds of too many ; and that there are not 
a few that desire (so it be at an easy rate) to 
be informed about this people, that have been 
so much every w^here spoken against : but, 
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, it is upon no worse grounds than 
it was said of old time of the primitive Chris- 
tians ; as I hope will appear to every sober and 
considerate reader. Our business, after all the 
ill usage we have met with, being the realities 
of religion, an effectual change before our last 
and great change ; that all may come to an 
inward, sensible and experimental knowledge 
of God, through the convictions and operations 
of the light and spirit of Christ in themselves, 
the sufficient and blessed means given to all, 
that thereby all may come savingly to know 
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he 
hath sent, to enlighten and redeem the world : 
which knowledge is indeed eternal life. And 
that thou, reader, mayst obtain it, is the earnest 
desire of him that is ever 

Thine in so good a work, 

WILLIAM PENN. 



RISE AND PROGRESS 



OF THE 



OCIETY OF FRIENDS. 



Divers have been the dispensations of God 
since the creation of the world unto the sons of 
men ; but the great end of all of them has been 
the renow^n of his own excellent name in the 
creation and restoration of man — man, the 
emblem of himself, as a God on earth, and 
the glory of all his works. The world began 
with innocency : all was then good that the 
good God had made : and as he blessed the 
works of his hands, so their natures and har- 
mony magnified him their Creator. Then the 
morning stars sang together for joy, and all 
parts of his works said Amen to his law : not 
a jar in the whole frame ; but man in paradise, 
the beasts in the field, the fowl in the air, the 
fish in the sea, the lights in the heavens, the 
fruits of the earth ; yea, the air, the earth, the 
water and fire worshipped, praised and exalted 
his power, wisdom and goodness ! O holy sab- 
bath ! O holy day to the Lord ! 

But this happy state lasted not long: for 

1# 



b RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

man, the crown and glory of the whole, being 
tempted to aspire above his place, unhappily 
yielded against command and duty, as well as 
interest and felicity ; and so fell below it, lost 
the divine image, the w^isdom, power and purity 
he was made in. By which, being no longer 
fit for paradise, he was expelled that garden of 
God, his proper dwelling and residence, and 
was driven out, as a poor vagabond, from the 
presence of the Lord, to wander in the earth, 
the habitation of beasts. 

Yet God who made him had pity on him ; 
for He, seeing man was deceived, and that it 
was not of mahce, or an original presumption 
in him, but through the subtilty of the serpent, 
(that had first fallen from his own state,) and by 
the mediation of the woman, man's own nature 
and companion, (whom the serpent had first 
deluded,) in his infinite goodness and wisdom 
provided a way to repair the breach, recover 
the loss, and restore fallen man again by a 
nobler and more excellent Adam, promised to 
be born of a woman ; that as, by means of a 
woman the evil one had prevailed upon man, 
by a woman also He should come into the 
w^orld, who would prevail against him and 
bruise his head, and deliver man from his power : 
and which, in a signal manner, by the dispensa- 
tion of the Son of God in the flesh, in the fulness 
of time, was personally and fully accomplished 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 7 

by him, and in him, as man's Saviour and 
Redeemer. 

But his power was not limited, in the mani- 
festation of it, to that time ; for both before and 
since his blessed manifestation in the flesh, He 
has been the light and life, the rock and strength 
of all that ever feared God ; was present with 
them in their temptations, followed them in their 
travels and afiiictions, and supported and carried 
them through and over the difficulties that have 
attended them in their earthly pilgrimage. By 
this, Abel's heart excelled Cain's, Seth obtain- 
ed the pre-eminence, and Enoch walked with 
God. It was this that strove with the old world, 
and which they rebelled against, and which 
sanctified and instructed Noah to salvation. 

But the outward dispensation that followed 
the benighted state of man after his fall, especi- 
ally among the patriarchs, was generally that of 
angels, as the Scriptures of the Old Testament 
do in many places express, as to Abraham, 
Jacob, &c. The next was that of the law by 
Moses, which was also delivered by angels, as 
the apostle tells us. This dispensation was 
much outward, and suited to a low and servile 
state ; called therefore that of a schoolmaster, 
to point out and prepare that people to look and 
long for the Messiah, who would dehver them 
from the servitude of a ceremonious and im- 
perfect dispensation, by knowing the realities of 
those mysterious representations in themselves. 



RISE AND PROGRESS OF 



111 this time the law was written on stone, the 
temple built with hands, attended with an out- 
ward priesthood and external rights and cere- 
monies, that were shadows of the good things 
that were to come, and were only to serve till 
the Seed came, or the more excellent and gene- 
ral manifestation of Christ, to whom was the 
promise, and to all men only in Him, in whom 
it was Yea and Amen, even life from death, 
immortality and eternal life. 

This the prophets foresaw, and comforted 
the believing Jews in the certainty of it ; which 
was the top of the Mosaical dispensation, which 
ended in John's ministry, the forerunner of the 
Messiah, as John's was finished in Him, the 
fulness of all. And God, who at sundry times, 
and in divers manners, had spoken to the 
fathers by his servants the prophets, spoke 
then by his Son Christ Jesus, who is heir of all 
things ; being the gospel-day, which is the dis- 
pensation of sonship ; bringing in thereby a 
nearer testament, and a better hope ; even the 
beginning of the glory of the latter days, and 
of the restitution of all things ; yea, the restora- 
tion of the kingdom unto Israel. 

Now the Spirit, that was more sparingly 
communicated in former dispensations, began 
to be poured forth upon all flesh, according to 
the prophet Joel ; and tlie light that shined in 
darkness, or but dimly before, the most graci- 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 9 

ous God caused to shine out of darkness ; and 
the day-star began to arise in the hearts of 
behevers, giving unto them the knowledge of 
God in the face (or appearance) of his Son 
Christ Jesus. 

Now the poor in spirit, the meek, the true 
mourners, the hungry and thirsty after righ- 
teousness, the peace-makers, the pure in heart, 
the merciful and the persecuted, came more espe- 
cially in remembrance before the Lord, and were 
sought out and blessed by Israel's true Shep- 
herd. Old Jerusalem with her children grew 
out of date, and the new Jerusalem into request, 
the mother of the sons of the gospel-day. 
Wherefore no more at old Jerusalem, nor at 
the mountain of Samaria, will God be wor- 
shipped above other places ; for, behold, he is 
declared and preached a Spirit, and He will be 
known as such, and worshipped in the Spirit 
and in the Truth. He will come nearer than 
of old time, and He will write his law in the 
heart, and put his fear and Spirit in the inward 
parts, according to his promise. Then signs, 
types and shadows flew away, the day having 
discovered their insufficiency in not reaching 
to the inside of the cup, to the cleansing of the 
conscience ; and all elementary services were 
expired in and by Him who is the substance of 
all. 

And to this great and blessed end of the dis- 



10 RISE a:nd progress or 

pensation of the Son of God, did the apostles 
testify, whom he had chosen and anointed by 
his Spirit, to turn the Jews from their prejudice 
and superstition, and the Gentiles from their 
vanity and idolatry, to Christ's Light and Spirit 
that shined in them ; that they might be quick- 
ened from the sins and trespasses in which they 
were dead, to serve the living God, in the new- 
ness of the Spirit of Hfe, and walk as children 
of the light, and of the day, even the day of 
holiness : For such " put on Christ," the light of 
the world, " and make no more provision for 
the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." So that the 
Light, Spirit and Grace, that comes by Christ, 
and appears in man, was what the apos- 
tles ministered from, and turned people's 
minds unto, and in which they gathered and 
built up the churches of Christ in their day. 
For which cause they advise them not to quench 
the Spirit, but w^ait for the Spirit, and speak 
by the Spirit, and pray by the Spirit, and w^alk 
in the Spirit too, as that which approved them 
the truly begotten children of God, born not of 
flesh and blood, or of the will of man, but of 
the will of God, by doing his will and denying 
their own, by drinking of Christ's cup, and 
being baptized with his baptism of self-denial ; 
the way and path that all the heirs of life have 
trod to blessedness. But alas ! even in the 
apostles' days, — those bright stars of the first 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 11 

magnitude of the gospel light — some clouds, fore- 
telling an eclipse of this primitive glory, began 
to appear; and several of them gave early cau- 
tion of it to the Christians of their time, that 
even then there was, and yet would be more 
and more, a falling away from the power of 
godliness, and the purity of that spiritual dis- 
pensation, by such as sought to make a fair 
show in the flesh, but with whom the offence of 
the cross ceased : yet with this comfortable 
conclusion, that they saw, beyond it, a more 
glorious time than ever to the true church. 
Their sight was true, and what they foretold 
to the churches, gathered by them in the name 
and power of Jesus, came so to pass : For Chris- 
tians degenerated apace into outsides, as days, 
and meats, and divers other ceremonies. And, 
which was worse, they fell into strife and con- 
tention about them, separating one from ano- 
ther, then envying, and, as they had power, per- 
secuting one another, to the shame and scandal 
of their common Christianity, and grievous stum- 
bhng and offence of the heathen, among whom 
the Lord had so long and so marvellously pre- 
served them. And having got at last the 
worldly power into their hands, by kings and 
emperors embracing the Christian profession, 
they changed, what they could, the kingdom of 
Christ, which is not of this world, into a 
worldly kingdom ; or at least styled the worldly 



12 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

kingdom, that was in their hands, the kingdom 
of Christ, and so they became worldly, and not 
true Christians. Then human inventions and 
novelties, both in doctrine and worship, crowd- 
ed fast into the church ; a door being opened 
thereunto, by the grossness and carnality that 
appeared then among the generality of Chris- 
tians, who had long since left the guidance of 
God's meek and heavenly Spirit, and given 
themselves up to superstition, will-worship, and 
voluntary humility ; (and as superstition is blind, 
so it is heady and furious ; for all must stoop to 
its blind and boundless zeal, or perish by it ;) in 
the name of the Spirit, persecuting the very ap- 
pearance of the Spirit of God in others, and 
opposing that in them which they resisted in 
themselves, viz. The I^ight, Grace and Spirit of 
the Lord Jesus Christ ; but always under the 
notion of innovation, heresy, schism, or some 
such plausible name. Though Christianity al- 
lows of no name or pretence whatever for per- 
secuting any man for matters of mere religion ; 
religion being in its very nature meek, gentle and 
forbearing, and consisting of faith, hope and cha- 
rity, which no persecutor can have, whilst he re- 
mains a persecutor ; in that a man cannot be- 
lieve well or hope well, or have a charitable or 
tender regard to another, w^hilst he would vio- 
late his mind, or persecute his body, for mat- 
ters of faith or worship tow^ards his God. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS;^ 13 

Thus the false church sprang up, and 
mounted the chair. But though she lost her 
nature, she would keep her good name of the 
Lamb's bride, the true church and mother of 
the faithful; constraining all to receive her 
mark, either in their forehead or right hand ; 
that is, publicly or privately. But in deed and 
in truth she was mystery Babylon, the mother 
of harlots, mother of those that, with all their 
show and outside of rehgion, were adulterated 
and gone from the Spirit, nature and life of 
Christ, and grown vain, worldly, ambitious, 
covetous, cruel, &c. which are the fruits of the 
flesh, and not of the Spirit. 

Now it was, that the true church fled into 
the wilderness, that is, from superstition and 
violence, to a retired, solitary, and lonely state ; 
hidden, and as it were, out of sight of men, 
though not out of the world : which shows 
that her wonted visibility was not essential to 
the being of a true church in the judgment of 
the Holy Ghost ; she being as true a church in 
the wilderness, though not as visible and lus- 
trous, as when she was in her former splendour 
of profession. In this state many attempts she 
made to return ; but the waters were yet too 
high, and her way blocked up, and many of her 
excellent children, in several nations and cen- 
turies, fell by the cruelty of superstition, be- 

2 



14 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

cause they would not fall from their faithfulness 
to the truth. 

The last age did set some steps towards it, 
both as to doctrine, worship, and practice. But 
practice quickly failed ; for wickedness flowed 
in a little time, as well among the professors of 
the Reformation, as those they reformed from ; 
so that by the fruits of conversation they were 
not to be distinguished. And the children of 
the reformers, if not the reformers themselves, 
betook themselves very early to earthly policy 
and power, to uphold and carry on their refor- 
mation that had been begun with spiritual wea- 
pons ; which, I have often thought, has been 
one of the greatest reasons the Reformation 
made no better progress, as to the life and soul 
of relisfion. For whilst the reformers were 
lowly and spiritually minded, and trusted in 
God, and looked to him, and lived in his fear, 
and consulted not with flesh and blood, nor 
sought deliverance in their own way, there were 
daily added to the church such, as one might 
reasonably say, should be saved ; for they were 
not so careful to be safe from persecution, as 
to be faithful and inofiensive under it ; being 
more concerned to spread the truth by their 
faith and patience in tribulation, than to get the 
worldly power out of their hands that inflicted 
their sufterings upon them ; and it will be well 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 15 

if the Lord suffer them not to fall, by the very 
same way they took to stand. 

In doctrine they were in some things short ; 
in other things, to avoid one extreme, they 
ran into another ; and for worship, there was, 
for the generality, more of man than God. 
They owned the Spirit, Inspiration and Revela- 
tion, indeed, and grounded their separation and 
reformation upon the sense and understanding 
they received from it, in the reading of the 
Scriptures of truth. And this was their plea, the 
Scripture was the text, the Spirit the interpre- 
ter, and that to every one for himself. But yet 
there was too much of human invention, tradi- 
tion and art, that remained both in praying and 
preaching ; and of worldly authority and 
worldly greatness in their ministers ; especially 
in this kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, and some 
parts of Germany. God was therefore pleased 
among us, to shift from vessel to vessel ; and 
the next remove humbled the ministry, so 
that they were more strict in preaching, devout 
in praying, and zealous for keeping the Lord's 
day, and catechising children and servants, 
and repeating at home in their families, what 
they had heard in public. 

But even as these grew into power, they were 
not only for whipping some out, but others into 
the temple ; and they appeared rigid in their spi- 
rits, rather than severe in their lives, and more 



16 RrSE AND PROGRESS OF 

for a party than for piety, which brought forth 
another people, that were yet more retired and 
select. These would not communicate at large, 
or in common with others ; but formed churches 
among themselves of such as could give some 
account of their conversion, at least of very 
promising experiences of the work of God's 
grace upon their hearts ; and under mutual 
agreements and covenants of fellowship, they 
kept together. These people were somewhat 
of a softer temper, and seemed to recommend 
religion by the charms of its love, mercy and 
goodness, rather than by the terrors of its judg- 
ments and punishments ; by which the former 
party would have terrified people into religion. 
They also allowed greater liberty to pro- 
phecy than those before them ; for they admit- 
ted any member to speak or pray, as well as 
their pastor, (whom they always chose, and not 
the civil magistrate,) if such found any thing 
pressing upon them to either duty, even without 
the distinction of clergy or laity — persons 
of any trade, be it never so low and me- 
chanical. But alas ! even these people suffer- 
ed great loss : for tasting of worldly empire, 
and the favour of princes, and the gain that 
ensued, they degenerated but too much. For, 
though they had cried down national churches 
and ministry, and maintenance too, some of 
them, when it was their own turn to be tried, 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 17 

fell under the weight of worldly honour and 
advantage, got into profitable parsonages too 
much, and outKved and contradicted their own 
principles : and, which was yet worse, turned, 
some of them, absolute persecutors of other 
men for God's sake, who but so lately came 
themselves out of the furnace ; which drove 
many a step farther, and that was into the wa- 
ter — another baptism — as believing they were 
not scripturally baptized ; and hoping to find 
that presence and power of God, in submitting 
to this ordinance, which they desired and 
wanted. 

These people made also profession of neglec- 
ting, if not renouncing and censuring, not only 
the necessity, but use of all human learning, as 
to the ministry, and all other qualifications to 
it, besides the helps and gifts of the Spirit of 
God, and those natural and common to men ; 
and for a time they seemed, Hke John of old, a 
burning and a shining light to other societies. 

They were very diligent, plain and serious ; 
strong in Scripture and bold in profession; 
bearing much reproach and contradiction. 
But that which others fell by, proved their 
hurt. For worldly power spoiled them too ; 
who had enough of it to try them what they 
would do if they had more ; and they rested 
also too much upon their watery dispensation, 
instead of passing on more fully to the fire 

2* 



RISE AND PROGRESS OF 



and Holy Ghost, which was His baptism, 
who came with a fan in his hand, that he might 
thoroughly (and not in part only) purge his 
floor, and take away the dross and the tin of 
his people, and make a man finer than gold. 
Withal they grew high, rough and self-right- 
eous, opposing further attainment; too much 
forgetting the day of their infancy and little- 
ness, which gave them something of a real 
beauty ; insomuch that many left them, and all 
visible churches and societies, and wandered 
up and down, as sheep without a shepherd, and 
as doves without their mates ; seeking their 
beloved, but could not find Him (as their souls 
desired to know him) whom their souls loved 
above their chiefest joy. 

These people were called Seekers by some, 
and the Family of Love by others ; because, 
as they came to the knowledge of one another, 
they sometimes met together, not formally to 
pray or preach at appointed times or places, in 
their own wills, as in times past they were 
accustomed to do, but waited together in 
silence ; and as any thing rose in any one of 
their minds that they thought savoured of a 
divine spring, so they sometimes spoke. But so it 
was, that some of them not keeping in humihty, 
and in the fear of God, after the abundance of 
revelation, were exalted above measure ; and 
for want of staying their minds in an humble 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 19 

dependence upon Him that opened their under- 
standings to see great things in his law, they 
ran out in their own imaginations, and mixing 
them with those divine openings, brought forth 
a monstrous birth, to the scandal of those that 
feared God and waited daily in the temple not 
made with hands, for the consolation of Israel, 
the Jew inward, and circumcision in Spirit, 

This people obtained the name of Ranters, 
from their extravagant discourses and prac- 
tices. For they interpreted Christ's fulfilling of 
the law for us, to be a discharging of us from 
any obligation and duty the law required, instead 
of the condemnation of the law for sins past, 
upon faith and repentance ; and that now it 
was no sin to do that which before it was 
a sin to commit ; the slavish fear of the law 
being taken off by Christ, and all things good 
that man did, if he did but do them with the 
mind and persuasion that it was so. Insomuch 
that divers fell into gross and enormous prac- 
tices ; pretending in excuse thereof, that they 
could, without evil, commit the same act which 
was sin in another to do ; thereby distinguish- 
ing between the action and the evil of it, by 
the direction of the mind and intention in the 
doing of it ; which was to make sin super- 
abound by the aboundings of grace, and to turn 
from the grace of God into wantonness — a 



20 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

securer way of sinning than before : as if Christ 
came not to take away sin, but that we might 
sin more freely at his cost, and with less danger 
to ourselves. I say, this ensnared divers, and 
brought them to an utter and lamentable loss 
as to their eternal state ; and they grew very 
troublesome to the better sort of people, and 
furnished the looser with an occasion to pro- 
fane. 

It was about that time, that the eternal, wise 
and good God was pleased, in his infinite love, 
to honour and visit this benighted and bewilder- 
ed nation with his glorious day-spring from on 
high ; yea, with a most sure and certain sound 
of the word of light and life, through the testi- 
mony of a chosen vessel, to an eflectual and 
blessed purpose, can many thousands say ; 
glory be to the name of the Lord forever! 

For as it reached the conscience and broke 
the heart, and brought many to a sense and 
search, so that which people had been vainly 
seeking witliout, with much pains and cost, 
they, by this ministry, found ivithin, where it 
was they wanted what they sought for, viz. 
the right way to peace with God. For they 
were directed to the light of Jesus Christ within 
them, as the seed and leaven of the kingdom of 
God ; near all, because in all, and God's talent 
to all — a faithful and true witness, and just 



THE SOCIETY OF FKIENDS. 21 

monitor in every bosom — the gift and grace of 
God, to life and salvation, that appears to all, 
though fev^ regard it. This the traditional 
Christian, conceited of himself, and strong in his 
own will and righteousness, and overcome with 
blind zeal and passion, either despised as a low 
and common thing, or opposed as a novelty, 
under many hard names, and opprobrious terms ; 
denying, in his ignorant and angry mind, any 
fresh manifestations of God's power and Spirit 
in man in these days, though never more needed 
to make true Christians. Not unlike those Jews 
of old, who rejected the Son of God, at the very 
same time that they blindly professed to wait 
for the Messiah to come ; because, alas ! he 
appeared not among them according to their 
carnal mind and expectation. 

This brought forth many abusive books, 
which filled the greater sort with envy, and 
lesser with rage ; and made the way and pro- 
gress of this blessed testimony strait and narrow 
indeed to those that received it. However, 
God owned his own work, and this testimony 
did effectually reach, gather, comfort and esta- 
blish the weary and heavy laden, the hungry 
and thirsty, the poor and needy, the mournful 
and sick of many maladies, that had spent all 
upon physicians of no value, and waited for 
relief from heaven, help only from above : see- 
ing, upon a serious trial of all things, nothing 



22 RISE AND PROGRESS OP 

else would do but Christ himself, the light of 
his countenance, a touch of his garment, and 
help from his hand, who cured the poor wo- 
man's issue, raised the centurion's servant, the 
widow's son, the ruler's daughter, and Peter's 
mother. And like her, they no sooner felt his 
power and efficacy upon their souls, but they 
gave up to obey him in a testimony to his 
power, and with resigned wills and faithful 
hearts, through all mockings, contradictions, 
beatings, prisons, and many other jeopardies 
that attended them for his blessed name's 
sake. 

And truly they were very many, and very 
great ; so that in all human probability they 
must have been swallowed up quick of the 
proud and boisterous waves that swelled and 
beat against them ; but that the God of all their 
tender mercies was with them in his glorious 
authority, so that the hills often fled, and the 
mountains melted before the power that filled 
them ; working mightily for them, as well as 
in them, one ever following the other. By 
which they saw plainly, to their exceeding 
great confirmation and comfort, that all things 
were possible with him with whom they had to 
do ; and that the more that which God required 
seemed to cross man's wisdom, and expose 
them to man's wrath, the more God appeared 
to help and carry them through all to his glory ; 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 23 

— insomuchj that if ever any people could say 
in truth, " Thou art our sun and our shield, our 
rock and sanctuary, and by thee we have leap- 
ed over a wall, and by thee we have run through 
a troop, and by thee we have put the armies of 
the aliens to flight," these people had a right to 
say it. And as God had delivered their souls 
from the wearisome burdens of sin and vanity, 
and enriched their poverty of spirit, and satis- 
fied their great hunger and thirst after eternal 
righteousness, and filled them with the good 
things of his own house, and made them stew- 
ards of his manifold gifts ; so they went forth 
to all quarters of these nations, to declare to the 
inhabitants thereof what God had done for 
them ; what they had found, and where and 
how they had found it, viz. the way to peace 
with God ; inviting them to come, and see, and 
taste for themselves, the truth of what they 
declared unto them. 

And as their testimony was to the principle 
of God in man, the precious pearl and leaven of 
the kingdom, as the only blessed means appoint- 
ed of God to quicken, convince and sanctify 
man, so they opened to them what it was in 
itself, and what it was given to them for ; how 
they might know it from their own spirit, and 
that of the subtle appearance of the evil one ; 
and what it would do for all those whose 
minds are turned off from the vanity of the 



2^4 RISE AND PROGRESS OP 

world, and its lifeless ways and teachers, and 
adhere to this blessed light in themselves, which 
discovers and condemns sin in all its appear- 
ances, and shows how to overcome it, if minded 
and obeyed in its holy manifestations and con- 
victions ; giving power to such to avoid and 
resist those things that do not please God, and 
to grow strong in love, faith and good works : 
that so man, whom sin hath made as a wilder- 
ness overrun with briars and thorns, might 
become as the garden of God, cultivated by his 
divine power, and replenished with the most 
virtuous and beautiful plants of God's own 
right-hand planting, to his eternal praise. 

But these experimental preachers of glad 
tidings of God's truth and kingdom, could not 
run when they list, or pray or preach when 
they pleased, but as Christ their Redeemer 
prepared and moved them by his own blessed 
Spirit, for which they waited in their services 
and meetings, and spoke as that gave them 
utterance ; and which was as those having 
authority, and not like the dreaming, dry and 
formal Pharisees. And so it plainly appeared 
to the serious-minded, whose spiritual eye the 
Lord Jesus had in any measure opened; so 
that to one was given the word of exhortation, 
to another the word of reproof, to another the 
word of consolation, and all by the same Spirit 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 25 

and in the good order thereof, to the convincing 
and edifying of many. 

And truly they waxed strong and bold 
through faithfulness ; and by the power and 
Spirit of the Lord Jesus became very fruitful ; 
thousands, in a short time, being turned to the 
Truth in the inward parts through their testi- 
mony in ministry and sufferings ; insomuch as 
in most counties, and many of the considerable 
towns of England, meetings were settled, and 
daily there were added such as should be saved. 
For they were diligent to plant and to water, 
and the Lord blessed their labours with an 
exceeding great increase, notwithstanding all 
the opposition made to their blessed progress, 
by false rumors, calumnies and bitter persecu- 
tions ; not only from the powers of the earth, 
but from everyone that listed to injure and 
abuse them : so that they seemed indeed to be 
as poor sheep appointed to the slaughter, and 
as a people killed all the day long. 

It were fitter for a volume than a preface, 
but so much as to repeat the contents of their 
cruel sufferings from professors as well as from 
profane, and from magistrates as well as the 
rabble : so that it may be said of this abused 
and despised people, they went forth weeping 
and sowed in tears, bearing testimony to the 
precious Seed, the Seed of the kingdom, 
which stands not in words, (the finest, the 

3 



26 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

highest that man's wit can use,) but in power — 
the power of Christ Jesus, to whom God the 
Father hath given all power in heaven and in 
earth, that He might rule angels above, and men 
below; who empow^ered them, as their work 
witnesseth, by the many that were turned 
through their ministry from darkness to the 
light, and out of the broad into the narrow way 
of life and peace, bringing people to a weighty, 
serious and godlike conversation ; the practice 
of that doctrine which they taught. 

And, as without this secret divine power 
there is no quickening and regenerating of dead 
souls, so the want of this generating and beget- 
ting power and life, is the cause of the little 
fruit that the many ministries, that have been 
and are in the world, bring forth. Oh ! that both 
ministers and people were sensible of this. My 
soul is often troubled for them, and sorrow and 
mourning compass me about for their sakes. 
Oh ! that they were wise. Oh ! that they would 
consider, and lay to heart the things that truly 
and substantially make for their lasting peace. 

Two things are to be considered ; the doc- 
trine they taught, and the example they led 
among all people. I have already touched 
upon their fundamental principle, which is as 
the corner-stone of their fabric ; and indeed, to 
speak eminently and properly, their character- 
istic, or main distinguishing point or principle, 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 27 

viz. The Light of Christ within, as God's gift 
for man's salvation. This, I say, is as the root 
of the goodly tree of doctrines that grew and 
branched out from it, which I shall now men- 
tion in their natural and experimental order. 

First, repentance from dead works to serve 
the living God; which comprehends three 
operations: first, a sight of sin; secondly, a 
sense and godly sorrow for it ; thirdly, an 
amendment for the time to come. This was 
the repentance they preached and pressed, and 
a natural result from the principle they turned 
all people unto. For of light came sight ; and 
of sight came sense and sorrow ; and of sense 
and sorrow came amendment of life : which 
doctrine of repentance leads to justification, 
that is, forgiveness of the sins that are past, 
through Christ the alone propitiation ; and to the 
sanctification or purgation of the soul, from the 
defiling nature and habits of sin present, by the 
Spirit of Christ in the soul ; which is justifica- 
tion in the complete sense of that word ; com- 
prehending both justification from the guilt of 
the sins that are past (as if they had never been 
committed) through the love and mercy of 
God in Christ Jesus ; and the creature's being 
made inwardly just, through the cleansing and 
sanctifying power and Spirit of Christ revealed 
in. the soul ; which is commonly called sancti- 
fication. But that none can come to know 



28 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

Christ to be their sacrifice that reject Him as 
their Sancdfier; the end of His coming being 
to save His people from the nature and defile- 
ment, as well as guilt of sin ; and that therefore 
those that resist His Light and Spirit, make 
His coming and offering of none effect to them. 

From hence sprang a second doctrine they 
were led to declare, as the mark of the prize of 
the high calhng to all true Christians, viz. per- 
fection from sin, according to the Scriptures of 
Truth ; which testify it to be the end of Christ's 
coming, and the nature of His kingdom, and 
for which His Spirit was and is given, viz. to 
be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, 
and holy, because God is holy. And this the 
apostles laboured for, that the Christians should 
be sanctified throughout in body, soul and 
spirit ; but they never held a perfection in wis- 
dom and glory in this life, or from natural 
infirmities, or death, as some have, with a weak 
or ill mind, imagined and insinuated against 
them. 

This they called a redeemed state, regenera- 
tion, or the new birth : teaching every where 
according to their foundation, that without this 
work were known, there was no inheriting the 
kingdom of God. 

Thirdly, this leads to an acknowledgment of 
eternal rewards and punishments, as they have 
good reason ; for else, of all people, certainly 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 29 

they must be the most miserable, who, for above 
forty years, have been exceeding great sufferers 
for their profession, and in some cases treated 
worse than the worst of men ; yea, as the 
refuse and off-scouring of all things. 

This was the purport of their doctrine and 
ministry; which, for the most part, is what 
other professors of Christianity pretend to hold 
in words and forms, but not in the power of 
godliness ; which, generally speaking, has been 
long lost by men's departing from that Principle 
and Seed of life that is in man, and which man 
has not regarded, but lost the sense of; and in 
and by which only he can be quickened in his 
mind to serve the hving God in newness of life. 
For as the life of religion was lost, and the 
generality lived and worshipped God after their 
own wills, and not after the will of God, nor 
the mind of Christ, which stood in the works 
and fruits of the Holy Spirit ; so that which 
they pressed, was not notion, but experience ; 
not formality, but godliness ; as being sensible 
in themselves, through the work of God's righ 
teous judgments, that without holiness no man 
shall ever see the Lord with comfort. 

Besides these general doctrines, as the larger 
branches, there sprang forth several particular 
doctrines, that did exemplify and farther explain 
the truth and efficacy of the general doctrine 

3* 



30 RISE AND TROGRESS OF 

before observed, in their lives and examples : 
as, 

I. Communion and loving one another. This 
is a noted mark in the mouth of all sorts of 
people concerning them : They will meet, they 
will help and stick one to another. Whence it 
is common to hear some say : Look how the 
Quakers love and take care of one another. 
Others, less moderate, will say : The Quakers 
love none but themselves : and if loving one 
another, and having an intimate communion in 
religion, and constant care to meet to worship 
God, and help one another, be any mark of 
primitive Christianity, they had it, blessed be 
the Lord, in an ample manner. 

II. To love enemies. This they both taught 
and practised. For they did not only refuse to 
be revenged for injuries done them, and con- 
demned it as of an unchristian spirit, but they 
did freely forgive, yea, help and relieve those 
that had been cruel to them, when it was in 
their power to have been even with them ; of 
which many and singular instances might be 
given ; endeavouring, through faith and pa- 
tience, to overcome all injustice and oppression, 
and preaching this doctrine as Christian, for 
others to follow. 

III. Another was. The sufficiency of truth- 
speaking, according to Christ's own form of 
sound words, of yea, yea, and nay, nay, among 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 31 

Christians, ■without swearing; both from Christ's 
express prohibition to swear at all, Matt, v., 
and for that they being under the tie and bond 
of truth in themselves, there w^as no necessity 
for an oath ; and it would be a reproach to 
their Christian veracity to assure their truth by 
such an extraordinary w^ay of speaking ; sim- 
ple and uncompounded answers, as yea, and 
nay, (without asseverations, attestations, or su- 
pernatural vouchers,) being most suitable to 
evangelical righteousness". But offering at the 
same time to be punished to the full, for false- 
speaking, as others for perjury, if ever guilty 
of it. And hereby they exclude, with all true, 
all false and profane swearing ; for which the 
land did and doth mourn, and the great God 
was, and is not a little offended with it. 

IV. Not fighting, but suffering, is another 
testimony pecuKar to this people. They affirm 
that Christianity teacheth people to beat their 
swords into plough-shares, and their spears into 
pruning hooks, and to learn war no more ; that 
so the wolf may lie down with the lamb, and 
the lion with the calf, and nothing that destroys 
be entertained in the hearts of people; ex- 
horting them to employ their zeal against sin, 
and turn their anger against Satan, and no 
longer war one against another ; because all 
wars and fightings come of men's own hearts' 
lusts, according to the apostle James, and not 



32 RISE A^D PROGRESS OF 

of the meek Spirit of Christ Jesus, who is cap- 
tain of another warfare, which is carried 
on with other weapons. Thus, as truth-speak- 
ing succeeded swearing, so faith and patience 
succeeded fighting, in the doctrine and practice 
of this people. Nor ought they for this to be 
obnoxious to civil government, since if they 
cannot fight for it, neither can they fight 
against it ; which is no mean security to any 
state. Nor is it reasonable that people should 
be blamed for not doing more for others than 
they can do for themselves. And, Christianity 
set aside, if the costs and fruits of war were 
well considered, peace, with all its inconveni- 
ences, is generally preferable. But though 
they were not for fighting, they were for sub- 
mitting to government ; and that, not only for 
fear, but for conscience-sake, where govern- 
ment doth not interfere with conscience ; be- 
lieving it to be an ordinance of God, and where 
it is justly administered, a great benefit to man- 
kind. Though it has been their lot, through 
blind zeal in some, and interest in others, to 
have felt the strokes of it with greater weight 
and rigour than any other persuasion in this 
age; whilst they, of all others, religion set 
aside, have given the civil magistrate the least 
occasion of trouble in the discharge of his 
ofliice. 

V. Another part of the character of this 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 33 

people, was, and is, they refuse to pay tithes or 
maintenance to a national ministry ; and that 
for two reasons : the one is, they believe all 
compelled maintenance, even to gospel minis- 
ters, to be unlawful, because expressly contrary 
to Christ's command, who said, " Freely you 
have received, freely give :" at least, that the 
maintenance of gospel ministers should be free, 
and not forced. The other reason of their refu- 
sal is, because those ministers are not gospel 
ones, in that the Holy Ghost is not their foun- 
dation, but human arts and parts. So that it 
is not matter of humour or sullenness, but pure 
conscience towards God, that they cannot help 
to support national ministries where they dwell, 
which are but too much and too visibly become 
ways of worldly advantage and preferment. 

VI. Not to respect persons, was, and is ano- 
ther of their doctrines and practices, for which 
they were often buffeted and abused. They 
affirmed it to be sinful to give flattering titles, 
or to use vain gestures and compliments of 
respect. Though to virtue and authority they 
ever made a difference ; but after their plain 
and homely manner, yet sincere and substantial 
way; well remembering the examples of Mor- 
decai and Elihu, but more especially the com- 
mand of their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, 
who forbad his followers to call men Rabbi, 
which implies lord or master ; also the fashion- 



84 RISE AND PB06RESS OF 

able greetings and salutations of those times ; 
that so self-love and honour, to which the 
proud mind of man is incident in his fallen 
estate, might not be indulged, but rebuked. 
And though this rendered their conversation 
disagreeable, yet they that will remember what 
Christ said to the Jews, " How can ye believe, 
which receive honour one of another," will 
abate of their resentment, if his doctrine has 
any credit w^th them. 

VII. They also used the plain language of 
thee and thou to a single person, whatever was 
his degree among men ; and indeed, the wis- 
dom of God was much seen, in bringing forth 
this people in so plain an appearance ; for it 
was a close and distinguishing test upon the 
spirits of those they came among; showing 
their insides, and what predominated, notwith- 
standing their high and great profession of 
religion. This, among the rest, sounded so 
harsh to many of them, and they took it so ill, 
that they would say, "Thou me, thou my 
dog! If thou thou'st me, I'll thou thy teeth 
down thy throat ;" forgetting the language they 
use to God in their own prayers, and the com- 
mon style of the Scriptures, and that it is an 
absolute and essential propriety of speech. And 
what good, alas ! had their religion done them, 
who were so sensibly touched with indignation 
for the use of this plain, honest and true speech ? 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 35 

VIII. They recommended silence by their 
example, having very few words upon all occa- 
sions. They were at a word in dealing ; nor 
could their customers, with many words, tempt 
them from it, having more regard to truth than 
custom, to example than gain. They sought 
solitude ; but when in company, they would 
neither use, nor willingly hear unnecessary or 
unlawful discourses; whereby they preserved 
their minds pure and undisturbed from unprofit- 
able thoughts and diversions. Nor could they 
humour the custom of Good night, Good mor- 
row, God speed ; for they knew the night was 
good, and the day was good, without wishing 
of either ; and that, in the other expression, the 
holy name of God was too lightly and unthank- 
fully used, and therefore taken in vain. Be- 
sides, they were words and wishes of course, 
and are usually as little meant, as are love and 
service in the custom of cap and knee ; and 
superfluity in those, as well as in other things, 
was burthensome to them ; and therefore they 
did not only decline to use them, but found 
themselves often pressed to reprove the prac- 
tice. 

IX. For the same reason they forebore 
drinking to people, or pledging of them, as the 
manner of the world is ; a practice that is not 
only unnecessary, but, they thought, evil in the 
tendencies of it, being a provocation to drink 



36 RISE AND PROGRESS OP 

more than did people good, as well as that it 
was in itself vain and heathenish. 

X. Their way of marriage is peculiar to 
them, and shows a distinguishing care above 
other societies professing Christianity. They 
say that marriage is an ordinance of God, and 
that God only can rightly join man and woman 
in marriage ; therefore they use neither priest 
nor magistrate ; but the man and woman ct)n- 
cerned, take each other as husband and wife, 
in the presence of divers credible witnesses, 
promising to each other, with God's assistance, 
to be loving and faithful in that relation, till 
death shall separate them. But antecedent to 
to this, they first present themselves to the 
Monthly Meeting for the affairs of the church, 
where they reside ; there declaring their inten- 
tions to take one another as husband and wife, 
if the said meeting have nothing material to 
object against it. They are constantly asked 
the necessary questions, as in case of parents 
or guardians, if they have acquainted them 
with their intention, and have their consent, 
&c. The method of the meeting is, to take a 
minute thereof, and to appoint proper persons 
to inquire of their conversation and clearness 
from all others, and whether they have dis- 
charged their duty to their parents or guardians; 
and to make report thereof to the next Monthly 
Meeting, where the same parties are desired to 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 37 

give their attendance. In case it appears they 
have proceeded orderly, the meeting passes 
their proposal, and so records it in their meet- 
ing-book. And in case the woman be a widow, 
and hath children, due care is there taken, that 
provision also be made by her for the orphans, 
before the meeting passes the proposals of marri- 
age ; advising the parties concerned, to appoint a 
convenient time and place, and to give fitting 
notice to their relations, and such friends and 
neighbours, as they desire should be the witness- 
es of their marriage; where they take one another 
by the hand, and by name promise reciprocally 
love and fidelity, after the manner before express- 
ed. Of all which proceedings, a narrative in way 
of certificate is made, to which the said parties 
first set their hands, thereby making it their 
act and deed ; and then divers relations, 
spectators and auditors set their names as wit- 
nesses of what they said and signed. And this 
certificate is afterwards registered in the record 
belonging to the meeting where the marriage 
is solemnized. Which regular method has been, 
as it deserves, adjudged in courts of law a good 
marriage ; where it has been by cross and ill 
people disputed and contested, for want of the 
accustomed formalities of priest and ring, &c. ; 
ceremonies they have refused, not out of humour, 
but conscience reasonably grounded ; inasmuch 
as no Scripture example tells us, that the priest 

4 



88 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

had any other part, of old time, than that of a 
witness annong the rest, before whom the Jews 
used to take one another. And therefore this 
people look upon it as an imposition to advance 
the power and profits of the clergy. And for 
the use of the ring, it is enough to say, that it 
was a heathenish and vain custom, and never 
in practice among the people of God, Jews or 
primitive Christians. The words of the usual 
form, as, " With m.y body I thee worship," &c. 
are hardly defensible. In short, they are more 
careful, exact and regular, than any form now 
used ; (and this mode is free of the inconveni- 
ences with which other methods are attended ;) 
their care and checks being so many, and such, 
as that no clandestine marriages can be per- 
formed among them. 

XL It may not be unfit to say something 
here of their births and burials, which make up 
so much of the pomp and solemnity of too 
many called Christians. For births, the pa- 
rents name their own children ; which is usually 
some days after they are born, in the presence 
of the midwife, if she can be there, and those 
that were at the birth ; who afterwards sign a 
certificate for that purpose prepared, of the 
birth and name of the child or children ; which 
is recorded in a proper book, in the Monthly 
Meeting to which the parents belong ; avoiding 
the accustomed ceremonies and festivals. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 39 

XII. Their burials are performed with the 
same simpUcity. If the body of the deceased 
be near any public meeting-place, it is usually 
carried thither, for the more convenient recep- 
tion of those that accompany it to the burying 
ground; and it so falls out sometimes, that 
while the meeting is gathering for the burial, 
some or other has a word of exhortation, 
for the sake of the people there met together; 
after w^hich the body is borne away by young 
men, or else those that are of the neighbourhood, 
or those that were most of the intimacy of the 
deceased party; the corpse being in a plain 
coffin, without any covering or furniture upon 
it. At the ground, they pause some time before 
they put the body into its grave, that if any there 
should have any thing upon them to exhort the 
people, they may not be disappointed, and that 
the relations may the more retiredly and so- 
lemnly take their last leave of the body of their 
departed kindred, and the spectators have a 
sense of mortality, by the occasion then given 
them to reflect upon their own latter end. 
Otherwise, they have no set rites or ceremonies 
on those occasions. Neither do the kindred of 
the deceased ever wear mourning ; they look- 
ing upon it as a worldly ceremony and piece 
of pomp ; and that what mourning is fit for a 
Christian to have at the departure of a beloved 
relation or friend, should be worn in the mind, 



40 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

which only is sensible of the loss ; and the love 
they had to them, and remembrance of them, 
to be outwardly expressed by a respect to their 
advice, and care of those they have left behind 
them, and their love of that they loved. Which 
conduct of theirs, though unmodish or unfash- 
ionable, leaves nothing of the substance of 
things neglected or undone. And as they aim 
at no more, so, that simplicity of life is what 
they observe with great satisfaction, though it 
sometimes happens not to be without the mock- 
eries of the vain world they live in. 

These things to be sure gavethem a rough and 
disagreeable appearance with the generality, 
who thought them turners of the world upside 
down, as indeed, in some sense they were ; but in 
no other than that wherein Paul was so charcjed, 
viz. to bring things back into their primitive 
and right order again. For these and such 
like practices of theirs were not the result of 
humour, or for civil distinction, as some have 
fancied, but a fruit of inward sense, which God, 
through his holy fear, had begotten in them. 
They did not consider how to contradict the 
world, or distinguish themselves as a party 
from others ; it being none of their business, as it 
was not their interest ; no, it was not the result 
of consultation or a framed design by which to 
declare or recommend schism or novelty. But 
God having given them a sight of themselves, 
they saw the whole world in the same glass of 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 41 

truth, and sensibly discerned the affections and 
passions of men, and the rise and tendency of 
things ; what it was that gratified the " lust of the 
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, 
which are not of the Father, but of the world." 
And from thence sprang, in the night of dark- 
ness and apostacy which hath been over people 
through their degeneration from the Light and 
Spirit of God, these and many other vain cus- 
toms ; which are seen by the heavenly day of 
Christ, that dawns in the soul, to be, either 
wrong in their original, or, by time and abuse, 
hurtful in their practice. And though these 
things seemed trivial to some, and rendered these 
people stingy and conceited in such persons' 
opinion, there was and is more in them, than 
they w^ere or are aware of 

It was not very easy to our primitive friends 
to make themselves sights and spectacles, and 
the scorn and derision of the world; which 
they easily foresaw^ must be the consequence of 
so unfashionable a conversation in it. But 
here was the v/isdom of God seen in the fool- 
ishness of these things; first, That they dis- 
covered the satisfaction and concern that people 
had in and for the fashions of this w^orld, not- 
withstanding their high pretences to another, in 
that any disappointment about them came so very 
near them, as that the greatest honesty, virtue, 

wisdom and ability, were unwelcome without 

4# 



42 RISE AND rROGRESS OF 

them. Secondly, It seasonably and profitably divi- 
ded conversation ; for this making their society 
uneasy to their relations and acquaintance, it 
gave them the opportunity of more retirement 
and solitude ; wherein they met with better 
company, even the Lord God their Redeemer, 
and grew strong in his love, power and wisdom, 
and were thereby better qualified for his service. 
And the success abundantly showed it : blessed 
be the name of the Lord. 

And though they were not great and learned 
in the esteem of this world, (for then they had 
not wanted followers upon their own credit and 
authority,) yet they were generally of the most 
sober of the several persuasions they were in, 
and of the most repute for religion ; and many 
of them of good capacity, substance and account 
among men. 

And also some among them wanted not for 
parts, learning or estate ; though then, as of old, 
not many wise, or noble, &c. were called, or at 
least received the heavenly call, because of the 
cross that attended the profession of it in sin- 
cerity. But neither do parts nor learning make 
men the better Christians, though the better 
orators and disputants ; and it is the ignorance 
of people about the divine gift, that causes 
that vulgar and mischievous mistake. Theory 
and practice, speculation and enjoyment, words 
and life, are two things. Oh ! it is the penitent, 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 43 

the reformed, the lowly, the watchful, the self- 
denying and holy soul, that is the Christian. 
And that frame is the fruit and work of the 
Spirit, which is the life of Jesus ; whose life, 
though hid in the fulness of it in God the Father, 
is shed abroad in the hearts of them that truly 
believe, according to their capacity. Oh ! that 
people did but know this to cleanse them, to 
circumcise them, to quicken them, and to make 
them new creatures indeed ; re-created or re- 
generated after Christ Jesus unto good works ; 
that they might live to God, and not to them- 
selves, and offer up hving prayers and living 
praises to the living God, through his own living 
Spirit, in which only he is to be worshipped in 
this gospel-day. 

Oh ! that they that read me could but feel 
me ; for my heart is affected with this merciful 
visitation of the Father of lights and spirits to 
this poor nation, and the whole world, through 
the same testimony. Why should the inhabit- 
ants thereof reject it 1 Why should they lose 
the blessed benefit of it ? Why should they not 
turn to the Lord wdth all their hearts, and say 
from the heart, " Speak, Lord, for now thy poor 
servants hear ? Oh ! that thy will may be done, 
thy great, thy good and holy will, in earth as it 
is in heaven. Do it in us, do it upon us, do 
what thou wilt with us ; for we are thine, and 
desire to glorify thee our Creator, both for that. 



44 EISE AND PROGRESS OF 

and because thou art our Redeemer ; for thou 
art redeeming us from the earth, from the vani- 
ties and pollutions of it, to be a peculiar people 
unto thee." Oh ! this were a brave day for 
Eno^land, if so she could sav in truth. But 
alas ! the case is otherwise : for which some of 
thine inhabitants, O land of my nativity ! have 
mourned over thee with bitter wailing and 
lamentation. Their heads have been indeed as 
waters, and their eyes as fountains of tears, 
because of thy transgression and stiffnecked- 
ness ; because thou wilt not hear, and fear, and 
return to the rock, even thy rock, O England ! 
from whence thou art hewn. But be thou 
warned, O land of great profession ! to receive 
him into thy heart. Behold at that door it is, 
he hath stood so long knocking; but thou 
wilt yet have none of him. Oh ! be thou awa- 
kened, lest Jerusalem's judgments do swiftly 
overtake thee, because of Jerusalem's sins that 
abound in tliee. For she abounded in formahty, 
but made void the weighty things of God's law, 
as thou daily doest. 

She withstood the Son of God in the flesh, 
and thou resistest the Son of God in the Spirit. 
He would have gathered her as a hen gathereth 
her chickens under her wings, and she would 
not ; so w^ould He have gathered thee out of 
thy lifeless profession, and have brought thee to 
inherit substance, to have known his power and 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 45 

kingdom ; for which He often knocked within, 
by his grace and Spirit, and without, by his 
servants and witnesses. But on the contrary, as 
Jerusalem of old persecuted the manifestation of 
the Son of God in the flesh, and crucified him, 
and whipped and imprisoned his servants ; so 
hast thou, O land ! crucified to thyself afresh the 
Lord of life and glory, and done despite to his 
Spirit of grace ; slighting the Fatherly visita- 
tion, and persecuting the blessed dispensers of 
it by thy laws and magistrates ; though they 
have early and late pleaded with thee in the 
power and Spirit of the Lord, in love and meek- 
ness, that thou mightest know the Lord, and 
serve him, and become the glory of all lands. 

But thou hast evilly entreated and requited 
them. Thou hast set at nought all their counsel, 
and wouldst have none of their reproof, as thou 
shouldst have had. Their appearance was too 
strait, and their qualifications were too mean 
for thee to receive them ; like the Jews of old, 
that cried, " Is not this the carpenter's son, and 
are not his brethren among us ; which of the 
scribes, of the learned (the orthodox) believe in 
him ?" prophesying their fall in a year or two, 
and making and executing severe laws to bring 
it to pass ; endeavouring to terrify them out 
of their holy way, or destroy them for abiding 
faithful to it. But thou hast seen how many 
governments that rose against them, and deter- 



46 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

mined their downfall, have been overturned and 
extinguished, and that they are still preserved, 
and become a great and a considerable people, 
among the middle sort of thy numerous inhabi- 
tants. And notwithstanding the many difficul- 
ties without and within, which they have 
laboured under, since the Lord God Eternal 
first gathered them, they are an increasing 
people; the Lord still adding unto them, in 
divers parts, such as shall be saved, if they per- 
severe to the end. And to thee, O England ! 
were they, and are they lifted up as a standard, 
and as a city set upon a hill, and to the nations 
round about thee, that in their light thou mayest 
come to see light, even in Christ Jesus, the light 
of the world ; and therefore thy light, and life 
too, if thou wouldst but turn from thy many 
evil ways, and receive and obey it. For in the 
Light of the Lamb must the nations of them 
that are saved walk, as the Scripture testifies. 

Remember, O nation of great profession ! 
how the Lord has waited upon thee since the 
dawning of reformation, and the many mercies 
and judgments by which he has pleaded with 
thee ; and awake and arise out of thy deep sleep, 
and yet hear his word in thy heart, that thou 
mayst live. 

Let not this thy day of visitation pass over 
thy head, nor neglect thou so great salvation 
as is this which is come to thy house, O Eng- 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 47 

land ! for why shouldst thou die, land that 
God desires to bless 1 Be assured it is He that 
has been in the midst of this people, in the 
midst of thee ; and not a delusion, as thy mis- 
taken teachers have made thee beheve. And 
this thou shalt find by their marks and fruits, 
if thou wilt consider them in the spirit of mod- 
eration. 

I. They were changed men themselves be- 
fore they went about to change others. Their 
hearts were rent as well as their garments ; 
and they knew the power and work of God 
upon them. And this was seen by the 
great alteration it made, and their stricter 
course of life and more Godly conversation that 
immediately followed upon it. 

II. They went not forth, or preached in their 
own time or will, but in the will of God ; and 
spoke not their own studied matter, but as they 
were opened and moved of his Spirit, with 
which they were well acquainted in their own 
conversion; w^hich cannot be expressed to 
carnal men, so as to give them any intelligible 
account; for to such it is, as Christ said, like 
the blowing of the wind, which no man knows, 
whence it cometh, or whither it goeth. Yet this 
proof and seal went along with their ministry, 
that many were turned from their lifeless pro- 
fessions, and the evil of their ways, to an in- 



48 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

ward and experimental knowledge of God, and 
an holy life, as thousands can witness. And as 
they freely received what they had to say from 
the Lord, so they freely administered it to 
others. 

III. The bent and stress of their ministry 
was conversion to God ; regeneration and holi- 
ness. Not schemes of doctrines and verbal 
creeds, or new forms of worship ; but a leaving 
off, in religion, the superfluous, and reducing 
the ceremonious and formal part, and pressing 
earnestly the substantial, the necessary and 
profitable part to the soul ; as all, upon a serious 
reflection, must and do acknowledge. 

IV. They directed people to a principle in 
themselves, though not of themselves, by which 
all that they asserted, preached and exhorted 
others to, might be wrought in them, and known 
to them, through experience, to be true ; which 
is an high and distinguishing mark of the truth 
of their ministry, both that they knew what 
they said, and were not afraid of coming to the 
test. For as they were bold from certainty, so 
they required conformity upon no human au- 
thority, but upon conviction, and the convic- 
tion of this principle, which they asserted was 
in them that they preached unto ; and unto that 
they directed them, that they might examine 
and prove the reality of those things which 
they had affirmed of it, as to its manifestation 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 49 

and work in man. And this is more than the 
many ministers in the world pretended to. 
They declare of religion, say many things true, 
in words, of God, Christ, and the Spirit; of 
holiness and heaven ; that all men should re- 
pent and amend their lives, or they will go to 
hell, &c. But which of them all pretend to 
speak of their own knowledge and experience ; 
or ever directed to a divine principle, or agent, 
placed of God in man, to help him ; and how 
to know it, and wait to feel its power to work 
that good and acceptable will of God in them ? 
Some of them indeed have spoken of the 
Spirit, and the operations of it to sanctification, 
and performance of worship to God ; but where 
and how to find it, and wait in it to perform 
our duty to God, was yet as a mystery to be 
declared by this farther degree of reformation. 
So that this people did not only in words, more 
than equally press repentance, conversion and 
holiness, but did it knowingly and experimen- 
tally ; and directed those to whom they preach- 
ed, to a sufficient principle; and told them 
where it was, and by what tokens they might 
know it, and which way they might experience 
the power and efficacy of it to their souls' hap- 
piness. Which is more than theory and specu- 
lation, upon which most other ministers depend : 
for here is certainty ; a bottom upon which 

5 



50 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

man may boldly appear before God in the great 
day of account. 

V. They reached to the inward state and 
condition of people, which is an evidence of 
the virtue of their principle, and of their minis- 
tering from it, and not from their own imagi- 
nations, glosses, or comments upon Scripture. 
For nothing reaches the heart, but what is 
from the heart, or pierces the conscience, but 
what comes from a living conscience. Inso- 
much that it hath often happened, where people 
have, under secrecy, revealed their state or 
condition to some choice friends for advice or 
ease, they have been so particularly directed 
in the ministry of this people, that they have 
challenged their friends with discovering their 
secrets, and telling their preachers their cases, 
to whom a word had not been spoken. Yea, 
the very thoughts and purposes of the hearts of 
many have been so plainly detected, that they 
have, like Nathaniel, cried out, of this inward 
appearance of Christ : " Thou art the Son of 
God, thou art the King of Israel." And those 
that have embraced this divine principle have 
found this mark of its truth and divinity, (as 
the woman of Samaria did of Christ, when in 
the flesh, that he was the Messiah,) viz. " It had 
told them all that ever they had done ;" shown 
them their insides, the most inward secrets of 
their hearts, and laid judgment to the line, and 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 51 

righteousness to the plummet ; of which thou- 
sands can, at this day, give in their witness. 
So that nothing has been affirmed by this peo- 
ple, of the power and virtue of this heavenly 
principie, that such as have turned to it have 
not found tnie, and more ; and that one half 
had not been told them of what they have seen 
of the power, purity, wisdom and goodness of 
God therein. 

VI. The accomplishments with w^hich this 
principle fitted, even some of the meanest of 
this people, for their work and service ; fur- 
nishing some of them with an extraordinary 
understanding in divine things, and an admira- 
ble fluency and taking way of expression, 
which gave occasion to some to wonder, say- 
ing of them, as of their Master, " Is not this 
such a mechanic's son, how came he by this 
learning ?" As from thence others took occa- 
sion to suspect and insinuate they were Jesuits 
in disguise, (who had the reputation of learned 
men for an age past,) though there was not the 
least ground of truth for any such reflection ; 
in that their ministers are known, the places of 
their abode, their kindred and education. 

VIL That they came forth low, and despised 
and hated, as the primitive Christians did, and not 
by the help of worldly wisdom or power, as 
former reformations, in part, have done. But 
in all things it may be said, this people were 



52 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

brought forth in the cross ; in a contradiction 
to the ways, worships, fashions and customs of 
this world ; yea, against wind and tide, that so 
no flesh might glory before God. 

VIII. They could have no design to them- 
selves in this work, thus to expose themselves 
to scorn and abuse ; to spend and be spent ; 
leaving wife and children, house and land, and 
all that can be accounted dear to men, with their 
lives in their hands, being daily in jeopardy, to 
declare this primitive message, revived in their 
spirits, by the good Spirit and power of God, 
viz. 

That God is light, and in him is no darkness 
at all ; and that he has sent his Son a light into 
the world, to enlighten all men in order to sal- 
vation ; and that they that say they have fel- 
lowship with God, and are his children and 
people, and yet walk in darkness, (viz. in dis- 
obedience to the light in their consciences,) and 
after the vanity of this world, they lie, and do 
not the truth. But that all such as love the 
light, and bring their deeds to it, and walk in 
the light, as God is light, the blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son, should cleanse them from all 
sin. Thus John i. 4, 19. Chap. iii. 20, 21. 1 
John, i. 5, 6, 7. 

IX. Their known great constancy and pa- 
tience in suffering for their testimony, in all the 
branches of it ; and that sometimes unto death, 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 53 

by beatings, bruisings, long and crowded im- 
prisonments, and noisome dungeons; four of 
them in New England dying by the hands of 
the executioner, purely for preaching amongst 
that people ; besides banishments and excessive 
plunders and sequestrations of their goods and 
estates, almost in all parts, not easily to be ex- 
pressed, and less to have been endured, but by 
those that have the support of a good and glo- 
rious cause ; refusing deliverance by any indi- 
rect ways or means, as often as it was offered 
unto them. 

X. That they did not only not show any 
disposition to revenge, when it was at any time 
in their powder, but forgave their cruel ene- 
mies ; showing mercy to those that had none 
for them. 

XL Their plainness with those in authority, 
like the ancient prophets, not fearing to tell 
them to their faces, of their private and public 
sins ; and their prophecies to them of their 
afflictions and downfall, when in the top of their 
glory; also of some national judgments, as of 
the plague, and fire of London, in express 
terms ; and likewise particular ones to divers 
persecutors, which accordingly overtook them, 
that were very remarkable in the places where 
they dwelt ; which in time may be made pubhc 
for the glory of God. 

Thus, reader, thou seest this people in their 

5# 



54 RISE AND PROGRESS OP 

rise, principles, ministry and progress, both 
their general and particular testimony; by 
which thou mayest be informed how, and upon 
what foot they sprang and became so consider- 
able a people. It remains next that I show 
also their care, conduct and discipline, as a 
Christian and reformed society, that they might 
be found living up to their own principles and 
profession. And this, the rather, because they 
have hardly suffered more in their character 
from the unjust charge of error, than by the 
false imputation of disorder; which calumny, 
indeed, has not failed to follow all the true steps 
that were ever made to reformation, and under 
which reproach none suffered more than the 
primitive Christians themselves, that were the 
honour of Christianity, and the great lights and 
examples of their own and succeeding ages. 

This people increasing daily both in town 
and country, an holy care fell upon some of 
the elders among them, for the benefit and ser- 
vice of the church. And the first business in 
their view, after the example of the primitive 
saints, was the exercise of charity ; to supply 
the necessities of the poor, and answer the hke 
occasions. Wherefore collections were early 
and Kberally made for that and divers other 
services in the church, and intrusted with faith- 
ful men, fearing God, and of good report, who 
were not weary in well-doing ; adding often of 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 55 

their own, in large proportions, which they 
never brought to account, or desired should be 
known, much less restored to them, that none 
might want, nor any service be retarded or dis- 
appointed. 

They were also very careful that every one 
that belonged to them answered their profession 
in their behaviour among men, upon all occa- 
sions ; that they lived peaceably, and were in 
all things good examples. They found them- 
selves engaged to record their sufierings and 
services; and in case of marriage, which 
they could not perform in the usual methods of 
the nation, but among themselves, they took 
care that all things were clear between the par- 
ties and all others. And it was then rare that 
any one entertained an inclination to a person 
on that account, till he or she had communicat- 
ed it secretly to some very weighty and emi- 
nent friends among them, that they might have 
a sense of the matter ; looking to the counsel 
and unity of their brethren as of great moment 
to them. But because the charge of the poor, 
the number of orphans, marriages, sufferings 
and other matters multiplied, and that it was 
good that the churches were in some way and 
method of proceeding in such affairs among 
them, to the end they might the better corres- 
pond upon occasion, where a member of one 
meeting might have to do with one of another ; 



56 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

it pleased the Lord in his wisdom and goodness, 
to open the understanding of the first Instrument 
of this dispensation of life, about a good and 
orderly way of proceeding ; who felt an holy 
concern to visit the churches in person through- 
out this nation, to begin and establish it among 
them. And by his epistles, the like was done in 
other nations and provinces abroad, which he 
also afterwards visited, and helped in that ser- 
vice ; which shall be observed when I come to 
speak of him. 

Now the care, conduct and discipline, I have 
been speaking of, and which are now practised 
among this people, is as followeth. 

This godly elder, in every county where he 
travelled, exhorted them, that some out of every 
meeting for worship, should meet together once 
in the month, to confer about the wants and 
occasions of the church. And as the case 
required, so those Monthly Meetings were fewer 
or more in number in every respective county: 
four or six meetings for worship, usually making 
one monthly meeting for business. And accor- 
dingly the brethren met him from place to place, 
and began the said meetings, viz. For the poor, 
orphans, orderly walking, integrity to their pro- 
fession, births, marriages, burials, sufferings, 
&c. And that these Monthly Meetings should, 
in each county, make up one Quarterly Meeting, 
where the most zealous and eminent friends of 



THE SOCIETY OF FKIENDS. 57 

the county should assemble to communicate, 
advise and help one another, especially when 
any business seemed difficult, or a Monthly 
Meeting was tender of determining a matter. 

Also that these several Quarterly Meetings 
should digest the reports of their Monthly Meet- 
ings, and prepare one for each respective county 
against the Yearly Meeting, in which all Quar- 
terly Meetings resolve ; which is held in London ; 
where the churches in this nation, and other na- 
tions and provinces, meet by chosen members 
of their respective counties, both mutually to 
communicate their church-affairs, and to advise, 
and be advised, in any depending case, to edifi- 
cation : also to provide a requisite stock for 
the discharge of general expenses for general 
services in the church, not needful to be here 
particularized. 

At these meetings any of the members of the 
churches may come, if they please, and speak 
their minds freely, in the fear of God, to any 
matter; but the mind of each Quarterly Meeting, 
therein represented, is chiefly understood, as to 
particular cases, in the sense delivered by the 
persons deputed, or chosen for that service by 
the said meeting. 

During their Yearly Meeting, to which their 
other meetings refer in their order, and natu- 
rally resolve themselves, care is taken by a 
select number for that service, chosen by the 



58 RISE AiND PROGRESS OF 

general assembly, to draw up the minutes of the 
said meeting, upon the several matters that have 
been under consideration therein, to the end that 
the respective Quarterly and Monthly Meetings 
may be informed of all proceedings ; together 
Vi^th a general exhortation to holiness, unity 
and charity. Of all which proceedings in the 
Yearly, Monthly and Quarterly meetings, due 
record is kept by some one appointed for that 
service, or that hath voluntarily undertaken it. 
These meetings are opened, and usually con- 
cluded, in their solemn waiting upon God, who 
is sometimes graciously pleased to answer them 
with as signal evidences of his love and presence, 
as in any of their meetings of worship. 

It is further to be noted, that in these solemn 
assemblies for the churches' service, there is no 
one presides among them after the manner of the 
assemblies of other people ; Christ only being 
their President, as He is pleased to appear in life 
and wisdom in any one or more of them ; to 
whom, whatever be their capacity or degree, 
the rest adhere with a firm unity, not of au- 
thority, but conviction, which is the divine 
authority and way of Christ's power and Spirit 
in his people : making good his blessed promise, 
that he would be in the midst of his, where and 
whenever they were met together in his name, 
even to the end of the world. So be it. 

Now it may be expected, I should here set 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 59 

down what sort of authority is exercised by this 
people, upon such members of their society as 
correspond not in their hves with their profes- 
sion, and that are refractory to this good and 
wholesome order settled among them ; and the 
rather, because they have not wanted their 
reproach and sufferings from some tongues and 
pens, upon this occasion, in a plentiful manner. 
The power they exercise, is such as Christ 
has given to his own people, to the end of the 
world, in the persons of his disciples, viz. to 
oversee, exhort, reprove, and after long suffer- 
ing and waiting upon the disobedient and refrac- 
tory, to disown them, as any more of their 
communion, or that they will any longer stand 
charged in the sight and judgment of God or 
men, with their conversation or behaviour, as 
any of them, until they repent. The subject- 
matter about which this authority, in any of the 
foregoing branches of it, is exercised ; is first, 
in relation to common and general practice ; 
and secondly, about those things that more 
strictly refer to their own character and profes- 
sion, and which distinguish them from all other 
professors of Christianity ; avoiding two ex- 
tremes upon which many split, viz. persecution 
and libertinism ; that is, a coercive power, to 
whip people into the temple ; that such as will 
not conform, though against faith and con- 
science, shall be punished in their persons or 



60 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

estates : or leaving all loose and at large, as to 
practice, and so unaccountable to all but God and 
the magistrate. To which hurtful extreme, 
nothing has more contributed than the abuse of 
church power, by such as suffer their passion 
and private interests to prevail with them to 
carry it to outward force and corporal punish- 
ment — a practice they have been taught to dis- 
like, by their extreme sufferings, as well as 
their known principle for an universal liberty 
of conscience. 

On the other hand, they equally dislike an 
independency in society; an unaccountableness, 
in practice and conversation, to the rules and 
terms of their own communion, and to those 
that are the members of it. They distinguish 
between imposing any practice that immediately 
regards faith or worship, (which is never to be 
done or suffered, or submitted unto) and requir- 
ing Christian compliance with those methods 
that only respect church-business in its more 
civil part and concern ; and that regard the 
discreet and orderly maintenance of the cha- 
racter of the society as a sober and religious 
community. In short, what is for the promo- 
tion of holiness and charity, that men may 
practise what they profess, live up to their own 
principles, and not be at liberty to give the 
lie to their own profession without rebuke, is 
their use and limit of church power. They 



THE SOCIETY OF FBIENDS. 61 

compel none to join them, but oblige those that 
are of them to walk suitably, or they are denied 
by them : that is all the mark they set upon them, 
and the power they exercise, or judge a Chris- 
tian society can exercise, upon those that are 
the members of it. 

The way of their proceeding against such as 
have lapsed or transgressed, is this : he is visited 
by some of them, and the matter of fact laid home 
to him, be it any evil practice against known 
and general virtue, or any branch of their par- 
ticular testimony, which he, in common, pro- 
fesseth with them. They labour with him in 
much love and zeal, for the good of his soul, 
the honour of God, and reputation of their pro- 
fession, to own his fault and condemn it, in as 
ample a manner as the evil or scandal was given 
by him ; which for the most part is performed 
by some written testimony under the party's 
hand : and if it so happen, that the party prove 
refractory, and is not willing to clear the truth 
they profess, from the reproach of his or her evil 
doing or unfaithfulness, they, after repeated 
entreaties and due waiting for a token of repent- 
ance, give forth a paper to disown such a fact, 
and the party offending ; recording the same as 
a testimony of their care for the honour of the 
truth they profess. 

And if he or she shall clear their profession 
and themselves, by sincere acknowledgment of 

6 



62 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

their fault, and godly sorrow for so doing, they 
are received and looked upon again as members 
of their communion. For as God, so his true 
people, upbraid no man after repentance. 

This is the account I had to give of the peo- 
ple of God called Quakers, as to their rise, 
appearance, principles and practices in this age 
of the world, both with respect to their faith 
and worship, discipHne and conversation. And 
I judge it very proper in this place, because it 
is to preface the journal of the first blessed and 
glorious instrument of this work, and for a tes- 
timony to him in his singular qualifications and 
services, in which he abundantly excelled in this 
day, and which are worthy to be set forth as an 
example to all succeeding times, to the glory of 
the Most High God, and for a just memorial to 
that worthy and excellent man, His faithful ser- 
vant and apostle to this generation of the world. 

I am now come to the third head or branch 
of my subject, viz. The instrumental author. 
For it is natural for some to say. Well, here is 
the people and work, but where and who was 
the man, the instrument — he that in this age 
was sent to begin this work and people ? I shall, 
as God shall enable me, declare w^ho and what 
he was ; not only by report of others, but from 
my own long and most inward converse, and 
intimate knowledge of him ; for which my soul 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 63 

blesseth God, as it hath often done : and I doubt 
not, but by that time I have discharged myself 
of this part of my subject, my serious readers 
will believe I had good cause so to do. 

The blessed instrument of and in this day of 
God, and of w^hom I am now about to write, 
was George Fox, distinguished from another of 
that name, by that other's addition of younger 
to his name, in all his writings ; not that he was 
so in years, but that he was so in the Truth : 
but he was also a worthy man, witness and ser- 
vant of God in his time. 

But this George Fox was born in Leicester- 
shire, about the year 1624. He descended of 
honest and sufficient parents, who endeavoured 
to bring him up, as they did the rest of their 
children, in the way and worship of the nation : 
especially his mother, who was a woman accom- 
plished above most of her degree in the place 
where she lived. But from a child he appeared 
of another frame of mind than the rest of his 
brethren ; being more religious, inward, still, 
solid, and observing beyond his years, as the 
answers he would give, and the questions he 
w^ould put, upon occasion, manifested, to the 
astonishment of those that heard him, especi- 
ally in divine things. 

His mother, taking notice of his singular tem- 
per, and the gravity, wisdom and piety, that 
very early shined through him, refusing childish 



64 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

and vain sports and company when very young, 
was tender and indulgent over him, so that from 
her he metwith little difficulty. As to his employ- 
ment, he was brought up in country business, 
and as he took most delight in sheep, so he was 
very skilful in them ; an employment that very 
well suited his mind in several respects, both 
for its innocency and solitude ; and was a just 
emblem of his after ministry and service. 

I shall not break in upon his own account, 
which is by much the best that can be given ; 
and therefore desire, what I can, to avoid say- 
ing any thing of what is said already, as to the 
particular passages of his coming forth : but, in 
general, when he was somewhat abov^e twenty, 
he left his friends, and visited the most retired 
and religious people in those parts. And some 
there were in this nation, who waited for the 
consolation of Israel, night and day, as Zacha- 
rias, Anna, and good old Simeon did of old 
time. To these he was sent, and these he sought 
out in the neighbouring counties, and among 
them he sojourned, till his more ample ministry 
came upon him. At this time he taught, and 
was an example of silence, endeavouring to 
bring them from self-performances; testifying 
of, and turning them to the light of Christ within 
them, and encouraging them to wait in patience, 
and to feel the power of it to stir in their hearts, 
that their knowledge and worship of God might 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 65 

stand in the power of an endless life, which 
was to be found in the lif?ht, as it was obeyed 
in the n^anifestation of it in naan. For in the 
Word was hfe, and that hfe is the Hght of men. 
Life in the Word, Hght in men ; and life in men 
too, as the light is obeyed : the children of the 
light hving by the life of the Word, by which 
the Word begets them again to God, which is 
the regeneration and new birth, without which 
there is no coming into the kingdom of God: 
and to which whoever comes, is greater than 
John ; that is, than John's dispensation, which 
was not that of the kingdom, but the consumma- 
tion of the legal, and fore-running of the gospel- 
times, the time of the kingdom. Accordingly 
several meetings were gathered in those parts ; 
and thus his time was employed for some 
years. 

In 1652, he being in his usual retirement, his 
mind exercised towards the Lord, upon a very 
high mountain (in some of the hither parts of 
Yorkshire, as I take it) he had a vision of the 
great work of God in the earth, and of the way 
that he was to go forth in a public ministry, to 
begin it. He saw people as thick as motes in 
the sun, that should in time be brought home to 
the Lord, that there might be but one Shepherd 
and one sheepfold in all the earth. There his 
eye was directed northward, beholding a great 
people that should receive him and his message 

6* 



06 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

in those parts. Upon this mountain he was 
moved of the Lord to sound out his great and 
notable day, as if he had been in a great audi- 
tory ; and from thence went north, as the Lord 
had shown him. And in every place where he 
came, if not before he came to it, he had his 
particular exercise and service shown to him, 
so that the Lord was his Leader indeed. For 
it was not in vain that he travelled ; God in 
most places sealing his commission with the 
convincement of some of all sorts, as well pub- 
licans as sober professors of religion. Some of 
the first and most eminent of tliose that came 
forth in a public ministry, and which arc now 
at rest, w^ere Richard Farnsworth, James 
Nayler, William Dewsberry, Thomas Aldam, 
Francis Howgil, Edward Burroughs, John 
Camm, John Audland, Richard Ilubbcrthorn, 
T. Taylor, T. Holmes, Alexander Parker, Wil- 
liam Simson, William Caton, John Stubbs, 
Robert Withers, Thomas Low, Josiah Coale, 
John Burnyeat, Robert Lodge, Thomas Salt- 
house, and many more worthies, that cannot be 
well here named ; together with divers yet living 
of the first and great convincement, who, after 
the knowledge of God's purging judgment in 
themselves, and some time of waiting in silence 
upon him, to feel and receive power from on 
high to speak in his name, (which none else 
rightly can, though they may use the same 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 67 

words) they felt its divine motions, and were 
frequently drawn forth, especially to visit the 
public assemblies, to reprove, inform, and exhort 
them ; sometimes in markets, fairs, streets, and 
by the highway side ; calling people to repent- 
ance, and to turn to the Lord with their hearts 
as well as their mouths ; directing them to the 
light of Christ within them, to see, examine, and 
consider their ways by, and to eschew the evil, 
and do the good and acceptable will of God. 
And they suffered great hardships for this their 
love and good will ; being often stocked, stoned, 
beaten, whipped and imprisoned, though honest 
men, and of good report where they lived, that 
had left wives, children, houses, and lands, 
to visit them with a living call to repentance. 
And though the priests generally set themselves 
to oppose them, and write against them, and 
insinuated most false and scandalous stories to 
defame them, stirring up the magistrates to sup- 
press them, especially in those northern parts ; 
yet God was pleased so to fill them with his 
living power, and give them such an open door 
of utterance in his service, that there was a 
mighty convincement over those parts. 

And through the tender and singular indul- 
gence of Judge Bradshaw, Judge Fell, and Co- 
lonel West, in the infancy of things, the priests 
were never able to gain the point they laboured 
for, which was to have proceeded to blood ; and, 



68 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

if possible, Herod-like, by a cruel exercise of the 
civil power, to have cut them off, and rooted 
them out of the country : but especially Judge 
Fell, who was not only a check to their rage in 
the course of legal proceedings, but otherwise 
upon occasion, and finally countenanced this 
people. For his wife receiving the Truth with 
the first, it had that influence upon his spirit, 
being a just and wise man, and seeing in his 
own wife and family a full confutation of all the 
popular clamours against the way of truth, that 
he covered them what he could, and freely 
opened his doors, and gave up his house to his 
wife and her friends ; not valuing the reproach 
of ignorant or evil-minded people ; which I here 
mention to his or her honour, and which will 
be, I believe, an honour and a blessing to such 
of their name and family, as shall be found in 
that tenderness, humility, love and zeal for the 
Truth and people of the Lord. 

That house was for some years, at first espe- 
cially, till the Truth had opened its way into the 
southern parts of this island, an eminent recep- 
tacle of this people. Others, of good note and 
substance in those northern countries, had also 
opened their houses, together wdth their hearts, 
to the many publishers, that, in a short time, the 
Lord had raised to declare his salvation to the 
people ; and w^here meetings of the Lord's mes- 
sengers were frequently held, to communicate 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 69 

their services and exercises, and comfort and 
edify one another in their blessed ministry. 

But lest this may be thought a digression, 
having touched upon this before, I return to this 
excellent man ; and for his personal qualities, 
both natural, moral and divine, as they appear- 
ed in his converse with the brethren, and in the 
church of God, take as follovv^s : 

I. He was a man that God endued with a 
clear and wonderful depth ; a discerner of 
others' spirits, and very much a master of his 
own. And though that side of his understand- 
ing which lay next to the world, and especially 
the expression of it, might sound uncouth and 
unfashionable to nice ears, his matter was nev- 
ertheless very profound ; and would not only 
bear to be often considered, but the more it was 
so, the more weighty and instructing it appear- 
ed. And as abruptly and brokenly as some- 
times his sentences w^ould seem to fall from 
him, about divine things, it is well known they 
were often as texts to many fairer declarations. 
And, indeed, it showed beyond all contradic- 
tion, that God sent him ; in that no art or parts 
had any share in the matter or manner of his 
ministry; and that so many great, excellent, 
and necessary truths as he came forth to preach 
to mankind, had therefore nothing of man's 
wit or wisdom to recommend them. So that 
as to man he was an original, being no man's 



70 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

copy. And his ministry and writings show 
they are from one that was not taught of man, 
nor had learned what he said by study. Nor 
were they notional or speculative, but sensible 
and practical truths, tending to conversion and 
regeneration, and the setting up of the kingdom 
of God in the hearts of men. And the way of 
it was his work. So that I have many times 
been overcome in myself, and been made to 
say, with my Lord and Master, upon the like 
occasion, " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of 
heaven and earthy that thou hast hid these 
things from the wise and prudent of this world, 
and revealed them to babes." For many times 
hath my soul bowed in an humble thankfulness 
to the Lord, that he did not choose any of the 
wise and learned of this world to be the first 
messenger in our age, of his blessed truth to 
men ; but that he took one that was not of high 
degree, or elegant speech, or learned after the 
way of this world, that his message and work, 
he sent him to do, might come with less suspi- 
cion, or jealousy of human wisdom and interest, 
and with more force and clearness upon the 
consciences of those that sincerely sought the 
way of truth in the love of it. I say, beholding 
with the eye of my mind, which the God of 
heaven had opened in me, the marks of God's 
finger and hand visibly in this testimony, from 
the clearness of the principle, the power and 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 71 

efficacy of it, in the exemplary sobriety, plain- 
ness, zeal, steadiness, humility, gravity, punctu- 
ality, charity and circumspect care in the 
government of church affairs, which shined in 
his and their life and testimony that God em- 
ployed in this work, it greatly confirmed me 
that it was of God, and engaged my soul in a 
deep love, fear, reverence and thankfulness for 
his love and mercy therein to mankind : in 
which mind I remain, and shall, I hope, through 
the Lord's strength, to the end of my days. 

II. In his testimony or ministry, he much 
laboured to open truth to the people's under- 
standings, and to bottom them upon the piinci- 
ple and principal, Christ Jesus, the Light of the 
world; that by bringing them to something 
that w^as from God in themselves, they might 
the better know and judge of him and them- 
selves. 

III. He had an extraordinary gift in opening 
the Scriptures. He would go to the marrow 
of things, and show the mind, harmony and 
fulfilling of them with much plainness, and to 
great comfort and edification. 

IV. The mystery of the first and second 
Adam, of the fall and restoration, of the law 
and gospel, of shadows and substance, of the 
servant's and son's state, and the fulfilling of 
the Scriptures in Christ, and by Christ, the 
true Light, in all that are his, through the obe- 



72 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

dience of faith, were much of the substance and 
drift of his testimonies. In all which he was 
witnessed to be of God ; being sensibly felt to 
speak that which he had received of Christ, and 
was his own experience, in that which never 
errs nor fails. 

V. But above all, he excelled in prayer. 
The inwardness and weight of his spirit, the 
reverence and solemnity of his address and 
behaviour, and the fewness and fulness of his 
words, have often struck even strangers with 
admiration, as they used to reach others with 
consolation. The most awful, living, reverent 
frame I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his 
in prayer. And truly it was a testimony he 
knew and lived nearer to the Lord than other 
men ; for they that know Him most, will see 
most reason to approach liim with reverence 
and fear. 

VI. He was of an innocent life, no busy- 
body, nor self-seeker ; neither touchy nor cri- 
tical. What fell from him was very inoffen- 
sive, if not very edifying. So meek, contented, 
modest, easy, steady, tender, it was a pleasure 
to be in his company. He exercised no autho- 
rity but over evil, and that every where, and 
in all ; but with love, compassion, and long 
suffering. A most merciful man, as ready to 
forgive, as unapt to take or give an offence. 
Thousands can truly say he was of an excel- 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 73 

lent spirit and savour^among them ; and because 
thereof, the most excellent spirits loved him 
with an unfeigned and unfading love. 

VII. He w^as an incessant labourer : for in 
his younger time, before his many, great and 
deep sufferings and travels had enfeebled his 
body for itinerant services, he laboured much 
in the w^ord and doctrine, and discipline, in 
England, Scotland and Ireland ; turning many 
to God, and confirming those that were con- 
vinced of the truth, and settling good order, as 
to church affairs, among them. And towards 
the conclusion of his travelling services, 
between the years 1671 and 1677, he 
visited the churches of Christ in the planta- 
tions in America, and in the United Provinces, 
and Germany, as his journal relates, to the 
convincement and consolation of many. After 
that time he chiefly resided in and about the 
city of London. And besides his labour in the 
ministry, which was frequent and serviceable, 
he wrote much, both to them that are within, 
and those that are without the communion. 
But the care he took of the affairs of the church 
in general was very great. 

VIII. He was often where the records of the 
business of the church are kept, and where the 
letters from the many meetings of God's people 
over all the world use to come. Which letters 
he had read to him, and communicated them 

7 



74 RISE AND PROGRESS OP 

to the meeting that is weekly held for such 
services ; and he would be sure to stir them 
up to answer them, especially in suffering cases ; 
showing great sympathy and compassion upon 
all such occasions ; carefully looking into the 
respective cases, and endeavouring speedy re- 
lief, according to the nature of them. So that 
the churches, or any of the suffering members 
thereof, were sure not to be forgotten or delayed 
in their desires, if he were there. 

IX. As he was unwearied, so he was un- 
daunted in his services for God and his people. 
He was no more to be moved to fear ihan to 
wrath. His behaviour at Derby, Litchfield, 
Appleby, before Oliver Cromwell, at Launces- 
ton, Scarborough, Worcester, and Westminster- 
Hall, with many other places and exercises, 
did abundantly evidence it, to his enemies as 
well as his friends. 

But as in the primitive times, some rose up 
against the blessed apostles of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, even from among those that they had 
turned to the hope of the gospel, and they 
became their greatest trouble ; so this man of 
God had his share of suffering from some that 
were convinced by him, who, through preju- 
dice or mistake, ran against him, as one that 
sought dominion over conscience, because he 
pressed, by his presence or ejiistlcs, a ready and 
zealous compliance with such good and whole- 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 75 

some things as tended to an orderly conversa- 
tion about the aftairs of the church, and in 
their walking before men. That which contri- 
buted much to this ill work was in some, a 
begrudging of this meek man the love and 
esteem he had and deserved in the hearts of the 
people ; and weakness in others, that were 
taken with their groundless suggestions of im- 
position and blind obedience. 

They would have had every man indepen- 
dent; that as he had the principle in himself, he 
should stand or fall to that only, and nobody 
else : not considering that the principle is one 
in all; and though the measure of light or 
grace might differ, yet the nature of it was the 
same ; and being so, they struck at the spiritual 
unity, which a people, guided by the same prin- 
ciple, are naturally led into : so that what is an 
evil to one, is so to all, and what is virtuous, 
honest, and of good repute to one, is so to all, 
from the sense and savour of the one universal 
principle which is common to all, and which 
the disaffected also profess to be the root of all 
true Christian fellowship, and that spirit into 
which the people of God drink, and come to be 
spiritually-minded, and of one heart and one 
soul. 

Some weakly mistook good order in the 
government of church affairs for discipline in 
worship, and that it was so pressed or recom- 



76 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

mended by him and other brethren. And there- 
upon they were ready to reflect the same 
things that dissenters had very reasonably ob- 
jected upon the national churches, that have 
coercively pressed conformity to their respec- 
tive creeds and worships. Whereas these 
things related wholly to conversation, and the 
outward, (and as I may say,) civil part of the 
church ; that men should walk up to the prin- 
ciples of their behef, and not be wanting in care 
and charity. But though some have stumbled 
and fallen, through mistakes, and an unreason- 
able obstinacy even to a prejudice ; yet blessed 
be God, the generality have returned to their 
first love, and seen the work of the enemy, that 
loses no opportunity or advantage by which 
he may check or hinder the work of God, and 
disquiet the peace of his church, and chill the 
love of his people to the truth, and one to ano- 
ther ; and there is hope of divers of the few 
that yet are at a distance. 

In all these occasions, though there was no 
person the discontented struck so sharply at, 
as this good man, he bore all their weakness 
and prejudice, and returned not reflection for 
reflection ; but forgave them their weak and 
bitter speeches, praying for them, that they 
might have a sense of their hurt, and see the 
subtilty of the enemy to rend and divide, and 
return into their first love that thought no ill. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 77 

And truly I must say, that though God had 
visibly clothed him with a divine preference 
and authority, and indeed his very presence 
expressed a religious majesty ; yet he never 
abused it ; but held his place in the church of 
God with great meekness, and a most engaging 
humihty and moderation. For upon all occa- 
sions, Hke his blessed Master, he was a servant 
to all ; holding and exercising his eldership in 
the invisible power that had gathered them, 
with reverence to the head and care over the 
body ; and was received, only in that spirit and 
power of Christ, as the first and chief elder in 
this age : who, as he was therefore worthy of 
double honour, so for the same reason it was 
given by the faithful of this day, because his 
authority was inward and not outward, and 
that he got it and kept it by the love of God, 
and power of an endless life. I write my know- 
ledge, and not report, and my witness is true ; 
having been with him for weeks and months 
together on divers occasions, and those of the 
nearest and most exercising nature ; and that 
by night and by day, by sea and by land ; in 
this and in foreign countries : and I can say, 1 
never saw him out of his place, or not a match 
for every service or occasion. 

For in all things he acquitted himself like a 
man, yea, a strong man, a new and heavenly- 
minded man, a divine and a naturalist, and all 

7* 



78 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

of God Almighty's making. I have been sur- 
prised at his questions and answers in natural 
things ; that whils'i; he was ignorant of useless 
and sophistical science, he had in him the 
grounds of useful and commendable knowledge, 
and cherished it every where : civil beyond all 
forms of breeding, in his behaviour ; very tem- 
perate, eating little, and sleeping less, though 
a bulky person. 

Thus he lived and sojourned among us. And 
as he lived, so he died ; feeling the same eter- 
nal power that had raised and preserved him, 
in his last moments. So full of assurance was 
he, that he trium.phed over death ; and so even 
in his spirit to the last, as if death were hardly 
worth notice, or a mention : recommending to 
some of us with him, the dispatch and disper- 
sion of an epistle just before given forth by him 
to the churches of Christ throughout the world, 
and his own books ; but above all, friends, and 
of all friends, those in Ireland and America ; 
twice over saying. Mind poor friends in Ire- 
land and America. 

And to some that came in and inquired how 
he found himself, he answered, "Never heed, the 
Lord's power is over all weakness and death ; 
the seed reigns, blessed be the Lord :" which 
was about four or five hours before his depar- 
ture out of this w^orld. He w^as at the great 
mectincir near Lombard street, on the first day 



THE SOCIETY OF FEIENDS. 79 

of the week, and it was the third following, 
about ten at night, when he left us. 

In a good old age he went, after having Hved 
to see his children's children in the truth to 
many generations. He had the comfort of a 
short illness, and the blessing of a clear sense 
to the last : and w^e may truly say, with a man 
of God of old, that being dead, he yet speaketh; 
and though now absent in body, he is present 
in spirit : neither time nor place being able to 
interrupt the communion of saints, or dissolve 
the fellowship of the spirits of the just. His 
works praise him, because they are to the 
praise of Him that wrought by him ; for which 
his memorial is and shall be blessed. I have 
done, as to this part of my subject, when I 
have left this short epitaph to his name: " Many 
sons have done virtuously in this day ; but dear 
George, thou excellest them all." 

And now, friends, you that profess to walk 
in the way that this blessed man w^as sent of 
God to turn us into ; suffer, I beseech you, the 
word of exhortation, as well fathers as children, 
and elders as young men. The glory of this 
day, and foundation of the hope that has not 
made us ashamed since we were a people, you 
know, is that blessed principle of light and life 
of Christ w^hich we profess, and direct all peo- 
ple to, as the great and divine instrument and 



80 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

agent of man's conversion to God. It was by 
this that we were first touched and effectually 
enlightened, as to our inward state ; which put 
us upon the consideration of our latter end ; 
causing us to set the Lord before our eyes, and 
to number our days, that we might apply our 
hearts to wisdom. In that day we judged not 
after the sight of the eye, or after the hearing 
of the ear ; but according to the light and sense 
this blessed principle gave us, so we judged and 
acted in reference to things and persons, our- 
selves and others ; yea, towards God our Ma- 
ker. For being quickened by it in our inward 
man, we could easily discern the difference of 
things, and feel what was right, and what was 
wrong, and what was fit, and what not, both 
in reference to religious and civil concerns. 
That being the ground of the fellowship of all 
saints, it was in that our fellowship stood. In 
this we desired to have a sense of one another, 
acted towards one another, and all men, in 
love, faithfulness and fear. 

In feeling of the stirrings and motions of this 
principle in our hearts, w^e drew near to the 
Lord, and waited to be prepared by it, that we 
might feel drawings and movings before we 
approached the Lord in prayer, or opened our 
mouths in ministry. And in our beginning and 
ending with this, stood our comfort, service and 
edification. And as we ran faster or fell short 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 81 

in our services, we made burthens for ourselves 
to bear ; finding in ourselves a rebuke instead 
of an acceptance ; and in lieu of well-done, 
Who has required this at your hands ? In that 
day we were an exercised people, our very 
countenances and deportment declared it. 

Care for others was then much upon us, as 
well as for ourselves ; especially of the young 
convinced. Often had we the burthen of 
the word of the Lord to our neighbours, rela- 
tions and acquaintance, and sometimes stran- 
gers also. We were in travail likewise for 
one another's preservation ; not seeking, but 
shunning occasions of any coldness or mis- 
understanding; treating one another as those 
that believed and felt God present : which kept 
our conversation innocent, serious and weighty ; 
guarding ourselves against the cares and friend- 
ships of the world. 

We held the Truth in the spirit of it, and not 
in our own spirits, or after our own will and 
affections : they were bowed and brought into 
subjection, insomuch that it was visible to them 
that knew us. We did not think ourselves at our 
own disposal, to go where we list, or say or do 
what we Hst or when we Hst. Our liberty stood 
in the liberty of the Spirit of Truth ; and no 
pleasure, no profit, no fear, no favour could 
draw us from this retired, strict and watchful 
frame. We were so far from seeking occasions 



82 RISE AND ]>R06R£SS OF 

of company, that we avoided them what we 
could ; pursuing our own business, with mode- 
ration, instead of meddHng with other people's, 
unnecessarily. 

Our words were few and savoury, our looks 
composed and weighty, and our whole deport- 
ment very observable. True it is, that this 
retired and strict sort of life from the liberty of 
the conversation of the world, exposed us to the 
censures of many, as humourists, conceited and 
self-righteous persons, &c. But it was our pre- 
servation from many snares, to wliich others 
were continually exposed, by the prevalency of 
the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the 
pride of life, that wanted no occasions or temp- 
tations to excite them abroad in the converse of 
the world. 

I cannot forget the humility and chaste zeal 
of that day. Oh ! how constant at meetings, 
how retired in them, how firm to Truth's life, 
as well as Truth's principles ! And how entire 
and united in our communion, as indeed became 
those that profess one Head, even Christ Jesus 
the Lord. 

This being the testimony and example the 
man of God, before-mentioned, was sent to 
declare and leave amongst us, and we having 
embraced the same as the merciful visitation of 
God to us, the word of exhortation at this time 
is, That we continue to be found in the way of 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 83 

this testimony, with all zeal and integrity, and 
so much the more, by how much the day 
draweth near. 

And first, as to you, my beloved and much 
honoured brethren in Christ, that are in the 
exercise of the ministry : Oh ! feel life in your 
ministry — let hfe be your commission, your 
well-spring and treasury on all such occasions : 
else, you well know, there can be no begetting 
to God, since nothing can quicken or make 
people alive to God, but the life of God ; and it 
must be a ministry in and from life, that enlivens 
any people to God. We have seen the fruit of 
all other ministries, by the few that are turned 
from the evil of their ways. It is not our parts, 
or memory, or the repetition of former open- 
ings, in our own will and time, that will do 
God's work. A dry doctrinal ministry, how- 
ever sound in words, can reach but the ear, 
and is but a dream at the best : there is another 
soundness, that is soundest of all, viz. Christ 
the power of God. This is the key of David, 
that opens and none shuts, and shuts and none 
can open : as the oil to the lamp, and the soul 
to the body, so is that to the best of words : 
which made Christ to say, " My words, they are 
Spirit, and they are life ;" that is, they are from 
life, and therefore they make you alive, that 
receive them. If the disciples, that had lived 
with Jesus, were to stay at Jerusalem till they 



84 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

received it, much more must we wait to receive 
before we minister, if we will turn people from 
darkness to light, and from Satan's power to 
God. 

I fervently bow my knees to the God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may 
always be like-minded, that you may ever wait 
reverently, for the coming and opening of the 
Word of Life, and attend upon it in your min- 
istry and service, that you may serve God in 
his Spirit. And be it little or be it much, it is 
well ; for much is not too much, and the least 
is enough, if from the motion of God's Spirit ; 
and without it, verily, never so little is too much, 
because to no profit. 

For it is the Spirit of the Lord immediately, 
or through the ministry of his servants, that 
teacheth his people to profit ; and to be sure, so 
far as we take Him along with us in our ser- 
vices, so far we are profitable and no farther. 
For if it be the Lord that must work all things in 
us for our salvation, much more is it the Lord 
that must work in us for the conversion of others. 
If therefore it was once a cross to us to speak, 
though the Lord required it at our hands, let it 
never be so to be silent, when he does not. 

It is one of the most dreadful sayings in the 
book of God, that " He that adds to the words 
of the prophecy of this book, God will add to 
him the plagues written in this book." To keep 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 85 

back the counsel of God is as terrible ; for " he 
that takes away from the words of the book of 
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out 
the book of life." And truly, it has great cau- 
tion in it, to those that use the name of the Lord, 
to be well assured the Lord speaks, that they 
may not be found of the number of those that 
add to the words of the testimony of prophecy, 
which the Lord giveth them to bear ; nor yet to 
mince or diminish the same, both being so very 
offensive to God. 

Wherefore, brethren, let us be careful neither 
to out-go our Guide, nor yei loiter behind him ; 
since he that makes haste, may miss his way, 
and he that stays behind, lose his guide. For 
even those that have received the word of the 
Lord, had need wait for wisdom, that they 
may see how to divide the word aright : which 
plainly implieth, that it is possible for one that 
hath received the word of the Lord, to miss in 
in the dividing and application of it ; which must 
come from an impatience of spirit, and a self- 
working, which makes an unsound and danger- 
ous mixture, and will hardly beget a right- 
minded living people to God. 

I am earnest in this above all other consi- 
derations, as to public brethren ; well knowing 
how much it concerns the present and future 
state and preservation of the church of Christ 

8 



86 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

Jesus, that has been gathered and built up by a 
Hving and powerful ministry, that the ministry 
be held, preserved and continued in the mani- 
festations, motions and supplies of the same life 
and power, from time to time. 

And wherever it is observed, that any do 
minister more from gifts and parts, than life and 
power, though they have an enlightened and 
doctrinal understanding, let them in time be 
advised and admonished for their preservation ; 
because insensibly such will come to depend upon 
a self-sufficiency ; to forsake Christ the living 
fountain, and hew out unto themselves cisterns 
that will hold no living waters : and by degrees, 
such will come to draw others from waiting 
upon the gift of God in themselves, and to feel 
it in others, in order to their strength and 
refreshment, to wait upon them, and to turn 
from God to man again, and so make shipwreck 
of the faith once deUvered to the saints, and of 
a good conscience towards God; which are 
only kept by that divine gift of life, that begat 
the one, and awakened and sanctified the other 
in the beginning. 

Nor is it enough, that we have known the 
divine gift, and in it have reached to the spirits 
in prison, and been the instruments of the con- 
vincing of others of the way of God, if we keep 
not as low and poor in ourselves, and as depend- 



THE SOCIETY OF FIIIENDS. 87 

ing upon the Lord, as ever : since no memory, 
no repetitions of former openings, revelations 
or enjoyments, will bring a soul to God, or 
afford bread to the hungry, or water to the 
thirsty, unless life go with what we say ; and 
that must be waited for. 

Oh ! that we may have no other fountain, 
treasure or dependence ! That none may pre- 
sume at any rate to act of themselves for God, 
because they have long acted from God ; that 
we may not supply want of waiting with our 
own wisdom, or think that we may take less 
care and more liberty in speaking than formerly; 
and that where we do not feel the Lord, by his 
power, to open us and enlarge us, whatever be 
the expectation of the people, or has been our 
customary supply and character, we may not 
exceed or fill up the time with our own. 

I hope we shall ever remember, who it was 
that said, " Of yourselves ye can do nothing." 
Our sufficiency is in him. And if we are not to 
speak our own words, or take thought what we 
should say to men in our defence when exposed 
for our testimony, surely we ought to speak 
none of our own words, or take thought what 
we shall say in our testimony and ministry, in 
the name of our Lord, to the souls of the people ; 
for then of all times, and of all other occasions, 
should it be fulfilled in us, " for it is not you that 



88 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

speak, but the Spirit of my Father that speaketh 
in you." 

• And indeed, the ministry of the Spirit must 
and does keep its analogy and agreement with 
the birth of the Spirit ; that as no man can 
inherit the kingdom of God, unless he be born of 
the Spirit, so no ministry can beget a soul to 
God, but that which is from the Spirit. For this, 
as I said before, the disciples waited before they 
went forth ; and in this, our elder brethren, and 
messengers of God in our day, waited, visited, 
and reached us. And having begun in the 
Spirit, let none ever hope or seek to be made 
perfect in the flesh. For what is the flesh to the 
Spirit, or the chafl" to the wheat? And if we 
keep in the Spirit, we shall keep in the unity of 
it, which is the ground of the fellowship. For 
by drinking into that one Spirit, we are made 
one people to God, and by it we are continued 
in the unity of the faith, and the bond of peace. 
No envying, no bitterness, no strife, can have 
place with us.' We shall watch always for good, 
and not for evil, one over another, and rejoice 
exceedingly, and not begrudge at one another's 
increase in the riches of the grace with which 
God replenisheth his faithful servants. 

And brethren, as to you is committed the dis- 
pensation of the oracles of God, which gives you 
frequent opportunities, and great place with the 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 89 

people among whom you travel, I beseech you 
that you would not think it sufficient to declare 
the Word of life in their assemblies, however 
edifying and comfortable such opportunities 
may be to you and them : but, as was the prac- 
tice of the man of God before mentioned, in 
great measure, when among us, to inquire the 
state of the several churches you visit; who 
among them are afflicted or sick, who are 
tempted, and if any are unfaithful or obstinate ; 
and endeavour to issue those things in the wis- 
dom and power of God, which will be a glori- 
ous crown upon your ministry. As that pre- 
pares your way in the hearts of the people, to 
receive you as men of God, so it gives you 
credit with them to do them good by your 
advice in other respects ; the afflicted will be 
comforted by you, the tempted strengthened, 
the sick refreshed, the unfaithful convicted and 
restored, and such as are obstinate, softened 
and fitted for reconciliation ; which is clinching 
the nail, and applying and fastening the general 
testimony, by this particular care of the several 
branches of it, in reference to them more imme- 
diately concerned in it. 

For though good and wise men, and elders 
too, may reside in such places, who are of worth 
and importance in the general, and in other 
places ; yet it does not always follow, that they 

8* 



90 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

may have the room they deserve in the hearts 
of the people they Hve among ; or some parti- 
cular occasion may make it unfit for him or 
them to use that authority. But you that 
travel as God's messengers, if they receive you 
in the greater, shall they refuse you in the less ? 
And if they own the general testimony, can 
they withstand the particular application of it, 
in their own cases ? Thus ye will show your- 
selves workmen indeed, and carry your 
business before you, to the praise of His name, 
that hath called you from darkness to light, 
that you might turn others from Satan's power 
unto God and his kingdom, which is within. 
And Oh ! that there were more of such faithful 
labourers in the vineyard of the Lord ! Never 
more need since the day of God. 

Wherefore I cannot but cry and call aloud to 
you, that have been long professors of the truth, 
and know the truth in the convincing power 
of it, and have had a sober conversation among 
men, yet content yourselves only to know truth 
for yourselves, to go to meetings, and exercise 
an ordinary charity in the church and an honest 
behaviour in the world, and limit yourselves 
within these bounds ; feeling little or no concern 
upon your spirits for the glory of the Lord in 
the prosperity of his truth in the earth, more 
than to be glad that others succeed in such 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 91 

service. Arise ye in the name and power of 
the Lord Jesus ! Behold how w^hite the fields 
are unto harvest, in this and other nations, 
and how few able and faithful labourers there 
are to work therein ! Your country-folks, 
neighbours and kindred want to know the 
Lord and his truth, and to walk in it. Does 
nothing lie at your door upon their account ? 
Search and see, and lose no time, I beseech 
you, for the Lord is at hand. 

I do not judge you ; there is one which judg- 
eth all men and his judgment is true. You 
have mightily increased in your outward sub- 
stance. May you equally increase in your 
inw^ard riches, and do good with both, while 
you have a day to do good. Your enemies 
would once have taken what you had from you 
for his name's sake, in whom you have believed; 
w^herefore he has given you much of the world, 
in the face of your enemies. But Oh ! let it be 
your servant, and not your master ! Your 
diversion rather than your business ! Let the 
Lord be chiefly in your eye ; and ponder your 
ways, and^see if God has nothing more for you 
to do : and if you find yourselves short in your 
account with him, then wait for his preparation, 
and be ready to receive the word of command, 
and be not weary of well-doing, when you 
have put your hand to the plough ; and 



92 RISE AND PROGRESS OP 

assuredly you shall reap, if you faint not, the 
fruit of your heavenly labour in God's ever- 
lasting kingdom. 

And you young convinced ones, be you intreat- 
ed and exhorted to a diliojent and chaste waiting 
upon God, in the way of his blessed manifesta- 
tion and appearance of himself to you. Look 
not out, but within : let not another's hberty be 
your snare : neither act by imitation, but sense 
and feehng of God's power in yourselves : crush 
not the tender buddings of it in your souls, nor 
over-run, in your desires and warmness of 
affections, the holy and gentle motions of it. 
Remember it is a still voice that speaks to 
us in this day, and that it is not to be heard in 
the noises and hurries of the mind ; but it is 
distinctly understood in a retired frame. Jesus 
loved and chose solitudes ; often going to 
mountains, gardens, and sea-sides, to avoid 
crowds and hurries, to show his disciples it was 
good to be solitary, and sit loose to the world. 
Two enemies lie near your states, imagination 
and liberty ; but the plain, practical, living, 
holy truth that has convinced you, will preserve 
you, if you mind it in yourselves, and bring 
all thoughts, inclinations and affections, to 
the test of it, to see if they are wrought in 
God, or of the enemy, or your ownselves. 
So will a true taste, discerning and judgment 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 93 

be preserved to you, of what you should do and 
leave undone. And in your diligence and 
faithfulness in this way you will come to 
inherit substance ; and Christ, the eternal wis- 
dom, will fill your treasury. And when you 
are converted, as w^ell as convinced, then 
confirm your brethren ; and be ready to every 
good word and work, that the Lord shall call 
you to ; that you may be to his praise, who has 
chosen you to be partakers, with the saints in 
light, of a kingdom that cannot be shaken, an 
inheritance incorruptible in eternal habita- 
tions. 

And now, as for you, that are the children 
of God's people, a great concern is upon my 
spirit for your good : and often are my knees 
bowed to the God of your fathers, for you, that 
you may come to be partakers of the same 
divine life and power, that have been the glory 
of this day ; that a generation you may be to 
God, an holy nation, and a peculiar people, 
zealous of good works, when all our heads are 
laid in the dust. O you young men and 
women ! let it not suffice you, that you are the 
children of the people of the Lord ; you must 
also be born again, if you will inherit the king- 
dom of God. Your fathers are but such after 
the flesh, and could but beget you into the hke- 
ness of the first Adam ; but you must be begot- 



94 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

ten into the likeness of the second Adam, by a 
spiritual generation, or you will not, you can- 
not be of his children or offspring. And there- 
fore look carefully about you, O ye children of 
the children of God ! Consider your standing, 
and see what you are in relation to this divine 
kindred, family and birth. Have you obeyed 
the light, and received and walked in the Spirit, 
which is the incorruptible seed of the Word and 
kingdom of God, of which you must be born 
again? God is no respecter of persons. The 
father cannot save or answer for the child, or 
the child for the father ; but in the sin thou sin- 
nest thou shalt die ; and in the righteousness thou 
dost, through Christ Jesus, thou shalt live ; for 
it is the willing and obedient that shall cat the 
good of the land. Be not deceived, God is not 
mocked ; such as all nations and people sow, 
such they shall reap at the hand of the just God. 
And then your many and great privileges above 
the children of other people, will add weight 
in the scale against you, if you choose not the 
way of the Lord. For you have had line upon 
line, and precept upon precept, and not only 
good doctrine, but good example ; and which is 
more, you have been turned to, and acquainted 
with, a principle in yourselves, which others 
have been ignorant of. And you know you 
may be as good as you please, without the 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 95 

fear of frowns and blows, or being turned out of 
doors and forsaken of father and mother for 
God's sake and his holy religion, as has been 
the case of some of your fathers, in the day they 
first entered into this holy path. And if you, after 
hearing and seeing the wonders that God has 
wrought in the deliverance and preservation of 
them, through a sea of troubles, and the mani- 
fold temporal, as well as spiritual blessings that 
he has filled them with, in the sight of their 
enemies, should neglect and turn your backs 
upon so great and near a salvation, you would 
not only be most ungrateful children to God 
and them, but must expect that God will call 
the children of those that knew him not, to take 
the crown out of your hands, and that your lot 
will be a dreadful judgment at the hand of the 
Lord. But Oh ! that it may never be so with any 
of you. The Lord forbid, saith my soul. 

Wherefore, O ye young men and women ! 
look to the rock of your fathers. There is no 
other God but him, no other light but his, no 
other grace but his, nor spirit but his, to con- 
vince you, quicken and comfort you ; to lead, 
guide and preserve you to God's everlasting 
kingdom. So will you be possessors as well as 
professors of the truth, embracing it, not only 
by education, but judgment and conviction ; 
from a sense begotten in your souls, through 



96 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

the operation of the eternal Spirit and power of 
God ; by which you may come to be the seed 
of Abraham, through faith, and the circum- 
cision not made with hands ; and so heirs of 
the promise made to the fathers, of an incoiTup- 
tible crown : that, as I said before, a generation 
you may be to God, holding up the profession 
of the blessed truth in the life and power of it. 
For formality in religion is nauseous to God 
and good men ; and the more so, where any 
form or appearance has been new and pecu- 
liar, and begun and practised upon a principle, 
with an uncommon zeal and strictness. There- 
fore I say, for you to fall flat and formal, and 
continue the profession, without that salt and 
savour bv which it is come to obtain a good 
report among men, is not to answer God's love, 
or your parents' care, or the mind of truth in 
yourselves, or in those that arc without: who, 
though they will not obey the truth, have sight 
and sense enough to see if they do that make a 
profession of it. For where the divine virtue of 
it is not felt in the soul, and waited for and lived 
in, imperfections will quickly break out, and 
show themselves, and detect the unfaithfulness 
of such persons, and that their insides are not 
seasoned with the nature of that holy principle 
which they profess. 

Wherefore, dear children, let me intreat you 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 97 

to shut your eyes at the temptations and allure- 
ments of this low and perishing world, and not 
suffer your affections to be captivated by those 
lusts and vanities, that your fathers, for the 
truth's sake, long since turned their backs 
upon : but as you believe it to be the truth, re- 
ceive it into your hearts, that you may become 
the children of God ; so that it may never be 
said of you, as the Evangelist writes of the 
Jews in his time, that Christ, the true Light, 
" came to his own, but his own received him 
not ; but to as many as received him, to them 
gave he power to become the children of God ; 
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will 
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God :" 
a most close and comprehensive passage to 
this occasion. You exactly and peculiarly 
answer to those professing Jews, in that you 
bear the name of G9d's people, by being the 
children, and wearing of the form of God's peo- 
ple. And He, by his Light in you, may be very 
well said to come to his own, and if you obey 
it not, but turn your backs upon it, and walk 
after the vanities of your minds, you will be of 
those that "received him not ;" which I pray God 
may never be your case and judgment ; but 
that you may be thoroughly sensible of the 
many and great obligations you lie under to 
the Lord for his love, and to your parents for 

9 



08 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

their care ; and with all your heart, and all 
your soul, and all your strength, turn to the 
Lord, to his gift and Spirit in you, and hear his 
voice and obey it, that you may seal to the tes- 
timony of your fathers, by the truth and evi- 
dence of your ovi^n experience ; that your 
children's children may bless you, and the Lord 
for you, as those that delivered a faithful exam- 
ple, as well as record of the truth of God unto 
them. So will the grey hairs of your dear 
parents, yet alive, go down to the grave with 
joy, to see you the posterity of truth, as well as 
theirs, and that not only their nature but spirit 
shall live in you when they are gone. 

I shall conclude this account with a few 
words to those that are not of our communion, 
into whose hands this may come ; especially 
those of our own nation. 

Friends, as you are the sons and daughters 
of Adam, and my brethren after the flesh, often 
and earnest have been my desires and prayers 
to God on your behalf, that you may come to 
know your Creator to be your Redeemer and 
Restorer to the holy image, that through sin 
you have lost, by the power and Spirit of his 
Son Jesus Christ, whom he hath given for the 
light and life of the world. And Oh ! that you, 
who are called Christians, would receive him 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 99 

into your hearts ! For there it is you want 
him, and at that door he stands knocking that 
you might let him in, but you do not open to 
him. You are full of other guests, so that a 
manger is his lot among you now, as well as of 
old. Yet you are full of profession, as were 
the Jews when he came among them, who 
knew him not, but rejected and evilly entreated 
him. So that if you come not to the posses- 
sion and experience of what you profess, all 
your formality in religion will stand you in no 
stead in the day of God's judgment. 

I beseech you, ponder with yourselves your 
eternal condition, and see what title, what 
ground and foundation you have for your Chris- 
tianity ; if more than a profession, and an his- 
torical belief of the Gospel. Have you known 
the baptism of fire, and the Holy Ghost, and the 
fan of Christ that winnows away the chaff in 
your minds, and carnal lusts and affections ? 
— that divine leaven of the kingdom, that, being 
received, leavens the whole lump of man, sanc- 
tifying him throughout in body, soul and spirit ? 
If this be not the ground of your confidence, 
you are in a miserable estate. 

You will say, perhaps, " That though you 
are sinners, and live in daily commission of sin, 
and are not sanctified," as I have been speak- 
ing, "yet you have faith in Christ, who has 



100 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

borne the curse for you, and in him you are 
complete by faith, his righteousness being im- 
puted to you." 

But, my Friends, let me entreat you not to 
deceive yourselves in so important a point as 
is that of your immortal souls. If you have 
true faith in Christ, your faith will make you 
clean ; it will sanctify you ; for the saints' faith 
was their victory of old. By this they over- 
came sin within, and sinful men without. And 
if thou art in Christ, thou walkest not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit, whose fruits are man- 
ifest. Yea, thou art a new creature ; new 
made, new fashioned, after God's will and 
mould. Old things are done away, and behold, 
all things are become new ; new love, desires, 
will, affections and practices. It is not any 
longer thou that livest, thou disobedient, carnal, 
worldly one ; but it is Christ that liveth in thee ; 
and to live is Christ, and to die is thy eternal 
gain : because thou art assured that thy cor- 
ruptible shall put on incorruption, and thy mor- 
tal, immortality, and that thou hast a glorious 
house, eternal in the heavens, that will never 
wax old or pass away. All this follows being 
in Christ, as heat follows fire, and light the 
sun. 

Therefore have a care how you presume to 
rely upon such a notion, as that you are in 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 101 

Christ, whilst in your old fallen nature. For 
what communion hath light with darkness, or 
Christ with Belial? Hear what the beloved 
disciple tells you : " If we say we have fellow- 
ship with God, and walk in darkness, we lie, and 
do not the truth." That is, if we go on in a 
sinful way, are captivated by our carnal affec- 
tions, and are not converted to God, we walk 
in darkness, and cannot possibly, in that state, 
have any fellowship with God. Christ clothes 
them with his righteousness, that receive his 
grace in their hearts, and deny themselves, and 
take up his cross daily, and follow him. Christ's 
righteousness makes men inwardly holy; of 
holy minds, wills and practices. It is not 
the less Christ's, because we have it ; for it is 
ours, not by nature, but by faith and adoption. 
It is the gift of God. But still, though not ours, 
as of or from ourselves, (for in that sense it is 
Christ's, for it is of and from him,) yet it is 
ours, and must be ours in possession, efficacy 
and enjoyment, to do us any good ; or Christ's 
righteousness will profit us nothing. It was 
after this manner that he was made, to the pri- 
mitive Christians, righteousness, sanctification, 
justification and redemption ; and if ever you 
will have the comfort, kernel and marrow oj* 
the Christian religion, thus you must come to 
learn and obtain it. 

9* 



102 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

Now, my friends, by what you have read, 
you may perceive that God has visited a poor 
people among you with this saving knowledge 
and testimony : w^hom he has upheld and 
increased to this day, notwithstanding the 
fierce opposition they have met withal. Des- 
pise not the meanness of this appearance. It 
was, and yet is (we know) a day of small 
things, and of small account with too many ; 
and many hard and ill names are given to it. 
But it is of God, it came from him because it 
leads to him. This we know, but we cannot 
make another to know it, unless he will take 
the same way to know it that we took. The 
World talks of God, but what do they do? 
They pray for power, but reject the principle 
in which it is. If you would know God, and 
worship and serve God as you should do, you 
must come to the means he has ordained and 
given for that purpose. Some seek it in books, 
some in learned men ; but what they look for 
is in themselves, though not of themselves; 
but they overlook it. The voice is too 
still, the seed too small, and the light shin- 
eth in darkness. They are abroad, and so 
cannot divide the spoil. But the woman that 
lost her silver, found it at home, after she had 
lighted her candle and swept her house. Do 
you so too, and you shall find what Pilate 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 103 

wanted to know, viz. Truth : truth in the 
inward parts, so valuable in the sight of God. 

The light of Christ within, who is the light 
of the world, (and so a light to you, that tells 
you the truth of your condition,) leads all, that 
take heed unto it, out of darkness into God's 
marvellous light. For light grows upon the 
obedient : it is " sown for the righteous," and 
their way is a shining light, that shines forth 
more and more to the perfect day. 

Wherefore, O friends, turn in, turn in, I 
beseech you. Where is the poison, there is the 
antidote : there you want Christ, and there 
you must find him ; and blessed be God, there 
you may find him. Seek and you shall find, I 
testify for God. But then you must seek 
aright, with your whole heart, as men that 
seek for their lives, yea, for their eternal fives ; 
diligently, humbly, patiently, as those that can 
taste no pleasure, comfort or satisfaction, in any 
thing else, unless you find him whom your 
souls desire to know and love above all. Oh ! it 
is a travail, a spiritual travail, let the carnal, 
profane world, think and say as it will. And 
through this path you must walk to the city of 
God, that has eternal foundations, if ever you 
will come there. 

Well ! and what does this blessed light do 
for you ? Why, first, it sets all your sins in 



104 RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

order before you : it detects the spirit of this 
world in all its baits and allurements, and shows 
how man came to fall from God, and the 
fallen estate he is in. Secondly, it begets a 
sense and sorrow, in such as believe in it, for 
this fearful lapse. You will then see Him dis- 
tinctly whom you have pierced, and all the 
blows and wounds you have given him by 
your disobedience, and how you have made 
him to serve with your sins ; and you will weep 
and mourn for it, and your sorrow will be ^ 
godly sorrow. Thirdly, after this it will bring 
you to the holy watch, to take care that you 
do so no more, and that the enemy surprise 
you not again. Then thoughts, as well as 
words and works, will come to judgment ; 
which is the way of holiness, in which the 
redeemed of the Lord do walk. Here you will 
come to love God above all, and your neigh- 
bours as yourselves. Nothing hurts, nothing 
harms, nothing makes afraid on this holy moun- 
tain. Now you come to be Christ's indeed ; 
for you are his in nature and spirit, and not 
your own. And when you are thus Christ's, 
then Christ is yours, and not before. And 
here communion with the Father, and with the 
Son you will know, and the efficacy of the 
blood of cleansing, even the blood of Jesus 
Christ, that immaculate Lamb, which speaks 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 105 

better things than the blood of Abel ; and which 
cleanseth from all sin the consciences of those 
that through the living faith, come to be 
sprinkled with it, from dead works, to serve 
the living God. 

To conclude, behold the testimony and doc- 
trine of the people called Quakers ! Behold 
their practice and discipline ! And behold the 
blessed man and men (at least many of them) 
that were sent of God in this excellent work and 
service ! All which is more particularly 
expressed in the Annals of that man of God, 
which I do heartily recommend to my readers' 
most serious perusal ; and beseech Almighty 
God, that his blessing may go along with both, 
to the convincement of many, as yet strangers 
to this holy dispensation ; and also to the edifi- 
cation of God's church in general : who for 
his manifold and repeated mercies and bless- 
ings to his people in this day of his great 
love, is worthy ever to have the glory, honour, 
thanksgiving and renown ; and be it rendered 
and ascribed, with fear and reverence, through 
him in whom he is well pleased, his beloved 
Son and Lamb, our light and life, that sits with 
him upon the throne, world without end. 
Amen, 

Says one that God has long since mercifully 
favoured with his fatherly visitation, and 



106 RISE AND PB06RESS. 

who was not disobedient to the heavenly- 
vision and call; to whom the way of truth 
is more lovely and precious than ever, and 
who, knowing the beauty and benefit of 
it above all worldly treasures, has chosen 
it for his chiefest joy ; and therefore 
recommends it to thy love and choice, 
because he is with great sincerity and 
affection, 

Thy Soul's Friend, 

WILLIAM PENN. 



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